I was plowing a field to get it ready for planting wheat. Suddenly, a large bird flew up and almost hit me in the face!
Looking down at the ground, I saw a nest right beside the tractor with four eggs in it. I stopped the tractor immediately or the plow would have run over the nest in the next few moments.
Carefully I picked up the nest and carried it to a patch of ground that had already been plowed and nestled it into the loose soil. I hoped the mother bird would see it there. However, when I had finished my morning’s work and returned to the nest, there was no sign that the mother bird had come back.
Hmmmm, now I had a decision to make. Should I just leave the nest with its eggs there in the field? No, I decided to take the nest home, and my next-door neighbor loaned me his incubator to keep the eggs warm. I knew that the mother bird also turns and moistens the eggs when they are nearly ready to hatch. So I did that too. But I guess I wasn’t a very good mother, because only two eggs hatched.
The baby birds looked like little ducklings. I built them a small house and fed them every day. I even made them a swimming pool, which they enjoyed. But they never enjoyed me! In fact, every time I came near them, they backed into the far corner of their house and acted as though I was their worst enemy. They never came near me or tried to show that they were thankful that I had fed and cared for them.
The ducklings reminded me of a story in Mark 12:1-7. This story is about a man who planted a vineyard and a hedge around it. He also built a tower and a winepress in it. He did everything he could to make sure it would grow lots of good grapes. Then the owner had to travel to another country, so he hired some men to take care of the vineyard and harvest the ripe grapes.
When the time of harvest had come, the owner sent his servants to collect his share of the money they got from selling the wine made from the grapes. But the men he had hired to take care of the vineyard were greedy and cruel. They beat up some of the owner’s servants and killed some too.
The owner was sadly surprised, and he wondered what he should do next. He decided to send his only son to set things straight. He thought they would respect his son.
You know, I thought the ducklings I had cared for would become pets, and we would enjoy each other. But no, they treated me as their enemy. And the men hired by the owner of the vineyard didn’t respect his son either. They treated him as their enemy and made an evil plan. They said to each other, He’s the heir of the vineyard. Let’s kill him, and the vineyard will be ours!
And that’s exactly what the people who didn’t respect God’s only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, did to Him. They didn’t want Him and treated Him as their enemy. They nailed Him to the cross where He died and shed His blood. But God turned their evil plan into good. His Son’s shed blood can cleanse sinners from their sins, making them ready for heaven.
After the Lord Jesus was buried, God raised Him from the dead, and He is alive in heaven right now. He wants to be our Saviour and best Friend.
Will you accept Him as your Saviour and best Friend? “The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world” (1 John 4:14).
MEMORY VERSE: “The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.” 1 John 4:14
ML-02/23/2014