There was once a bridge which spanned a large river. During most of the
day the bridge sat with its length running up and down the river paralleled
with the banks, allowing
ships to pass thru freely on both sides of the bridge. But at certain times
each day, a train would
come along and the bridge would be turned sideways across the river,
allowing a train to cross it.
A switchman sat in a small shack on one side of the river where he
operated the controls to turn the bridge and lock it into place as the
train crossed. One evening as the
switchman was waiting for the last train of the day to come, he looked off
into the distance thru the
dimming twilight and caught sight of the trainlights. He stepped to the
control and waited until the
train was within a prescribed distance when he was to turn the bridge. He
turned the bridge into
position, but, to his horror, he found the locking control did not work. If
the bridge was not securely
in position it would wobble back and forth at the ends when the train came
onto it, causing the
train to jump the track and go crashing into the river. This would be a
passenger train with many
people aboard.
He left the bridge turned across the river, and hurried across the
bridge to the other side of the river where there was a lever switch he
could hold to operate the lock
manually. He would have to hold the lever back firmly as the train crossed.
He could hear the rumble of the
train now, and he took hold of the lever and leaned backward to apply his
weight to it, locking the
bridge. He kept applying the pressure to keep the mechanism locked. Many
lives depended on this man's
strength.
Then, coming across the bridge from the direction of his control shack,
he heard a
sound that made his blood run cold. "Daddy, where are you?" His
four-year-old son was
crossing the bridge to look for him. His first impulse was to cry out to
the child, "Run! Run!" But
the train was too close; the tiny legs would never make it across the
bridge in time. The man almost left
his lever to run and snatch up his son and carry him to safety.
But he realized that he could not get back to the lever. Either the
people on the train or his little son must die. He took a moment to make
his decision. The train sped safely
and swiftly on its way, and no one aboard was even aware of the tiny broken
body thrown mercilessly
into the river by the onrushing train. Nor were they aware of the pitiful
figure of the
sobbing man, still clinging tightly to the locking lever long after the
train had passed.
They did not see him walking home more slowly than he had ever walked:
to tell his wife how their son had brutally died.
Now if you comprehend the emotions which went this man's heart, you can
begin to understand the feelings of our Father in Heaven when He sacrificed
His Son to bridge
the gap between us and eternal life. Can there be any wonder that He caused
the earth to tremble and
the skies to darken when His Son died? How does He feel when we speed along
thru life without giving
a thought to what was done for us thru Jesus Christ?
