CRASH!
“What was that?” everybody asked at the same time.
“It sounded like a branch of a tree breaking and falling,” said Dad, “but there isn’t any wind to cause it.”
Dad went to the front window. “Wow, look at all the snow!” he exclaimed. The whole family came to the window to see. The night was very still, but large, heavy snowflakes were falling fast. Everything in the garden was already covered with a thick blanket of wet, heavy snow.
“It must be nearly a foot deep already,” said Dad. “I’ve never seen it snow so hard before.”
CRASH!
“Look over there,” said Dad. “That old oak tree over at Kennedy’s house has just lost a big branch. The snow is too heavy for the trees!”
Through the night it continued to snow, with the temperature dropping and the wind picking up and getting stronger each hour. Anyone who was awake would have heard branches breaking and falling. Each one told of the end of another struggle between tree and heavy snow.
The next morning showed the damage that had been done by the snowstorm. Abandoned cars were everywhere. Great branches of trees had fallen. Telephone wires were down, and even some telephone poles had fallen.
When we think of all the damage that a snowstorm can do, we must remember that a pretty little snowflake is what caused it. Snowflakes may be small, and one of them will melt quickly on your finger, but their habit of sticking together makes them dangerous. One seems to attract another, and when they meet they stick together. If the snow is wet it will pile up on everything and become so heavy that things start to break. Sin is very much like this, too. Most of us think we are pretty good. At least we can always think of someone who is worse than we are. We don’t really understand how awful sin is in the sight of God. Sometimes we see what sin has done to a person; one sin leads to another, then another, until finally something terrible happens. The Bible tells us that all it takes is one sin for something terrible to happen — we cannot go to heaven to be with the Lord Jesus.
God who cannot have one sin in His presence, yet loves you and me, opened the way for sinners like us to be with Him in heaven. He sent His only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to be punished on the cross for sinners. If you believe that He was punished for you — that He died because of your sins — and accept Him as your own Saviour, you are saved — your sins are washed away in His blood. Why not accept Him right now?
ML-11/05/1989