Bob died recently; so did Diane. He had a long trip through life; hers was relatively short. Both started life on the same road, but later Diane chose a different road. The two roads they traveled led them to two different destinations.
Diane and Jim were high school sweethearts. They dated, got married, and had a baby boy. Up to that time neither took life very seriously. But after she became a mother, Diane became more serious and her sins started to bother her. She got a Bible and started to read it. Discovering that Christ was the Saviour of sinners, and that “the Son of God . . . loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:2020I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)), she called upon Him and was saved.
Jim loved Diane. If she wanted “religion” that was OK, but he didn’t see any need for it himself. So their lives went on, she on one road and he on another. They had two more boys and were a happy family. In time Jim listened to what Diane was telling him about his guilt before God as a sinner. He asked Jesus to save him from his sins; now the whole family was on the same road, enjoying the Lord Jesus, reading the Bible and praying together.
A little more than a year later, Diane discovered that she had leukemia. She began taking the treatments prescribed by her doctors, but she didn’t get any better. Slowly her health deteriorated. The family prayed that, if it was God’s will, she would get better. They could accept God’s will for them, knowing that “as for God, His way is perfect.”
With Jim at her side and two Christian friends quietly singing to her, Diane came to the end of her road through life with a peaceful smile on her face. That road led directly and immediately into the presence of the Lord Jesus.
Bob’s journey through life lasted longer than Diane’s, but he took a different road. Like Diane, he had a family he loved; God gave him the joys of a wife, two daughters, a nice house and a good job, but his family seldom went to church, never read the Bible, and thought they were good enough to get to heaven.
After being healthy for many years, Bob suddenly got very sick. His wife and daughter cried to God, pleading with Him to make Bob well again, for they pleaded, “Bob is a good man.”
For a few days he seemed brighter, but then quickly went downhill to the end of his road—a road he had traveled without God and that leads to eternal separation from God.
Bob and Diane traveled through life down separate roads, leading to separate destinations. The Lord Jesus spoke of these two roads when He was here on the earth. He said, “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matthew 7:13-1413Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: 14Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. (Matthew 7:13‑14)). Jesus is the straight gate and the narrow way, for He said of Himself, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (John 14:66Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6)).
Are you on Bob’s road—or Diane’s? God promises: “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Get on the road of life that leads to eternal joy. The gate is still open.
“I have set before you
life and death, blessing and cursing:
therefore choose life.”