of the day the bridge sat with its length running up and down
the river paralleled with the banks, allowing ships to pass through
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 the train to cross it.
A switchman sat in a 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 through the dimming twilight and caught sight of the train lights. He stepped onto the control and waited until the train was within a prescribed distance when he was about 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 cause 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 snatch up his son and carry him to safety.
But he realized that he could not get back to the lever in time
if he saved his son. Either many people on the train or his own son
- must die He took but 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 on rushing train. Nor were they aware of the pitiful figure of the
sobbing man, still clinging 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 that went through 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 through life without giving a thought to what was done for us through Jesus Christ?
John 3:16 For God so Loved the World, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life.
