As every boy and girl will know, Africa is a land with a hot climate. Until recent years the native children knew nothing about ice or snow. I read about a missionary in Africa who tried to explain to some of them how lakes became hard and solid in his northern homeland. He told them that children could play on top of the water. But nobody believed him. They did not understand that water could freeze when it became very cold. They had never seen it, and so they said he was lying.
However, he brought one of these boys with him when he came back home for a rest, and took him to a frozen lake. The missionary asked him to walk on the ice with him, but the boy was afraid. The missionary took him by the hand, and together they walked out across the lake, walking on the water just like the missionary had said.
“You did not believe what I said about solid water,” the missionary reminded him.
“I believe NOW,” the boy replied quickly.
He had to see it before he would believe. He did not trust the missionary’s word when he could not see it.
The Lord Jesus has told us a lot of things about God. He has told us how we can come to know Him and how we can have a happy place in heaven after we die, or an unhappy place of torment if we do not believe Him. He asks us to believe BEFORE we see, for He is simply telling the truth. He has said, “Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed” (John 20:2929Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. (John 20:29)). Jesus said He was THE TRUTH. He could not tell a lie. How important it is then that we listen to every word He says, because, like the missionary, He is simply telling what He has seen and knows, because He is the Son of God and came from heaven. He also warns, “He that believeth on Him [Jesus] is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:1818He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (John 3:18)).
Will you believe what Jesus has told us?
ML-06/02/1996