THE BRIDGE

There was once a bridge which spanned a large river. During most of theday the bridge sat with its length running up and down the riverparalleled with the banks, allowing ships to pass through freely on bothsides of the bridge.

But at certain times each day, a train would come along and the bridgewould 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 heoperated the controls to turn the bridge and lock it into place as thetrain crossed.

One evening as the switchman was waiting for the last train of the dayto come, he looked off into the distance through the dimming twilightand caught sight of the train lights. He stepped to the control andwaited until the train was within a prescribed distance when he was toturn 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 andforth at the ends when the train came onto it, causing the train to jumpthe track and go crashing into the river. This would be a passengertrain with many people aboard.

He left the bridge, turned across the river, and hurried across thebridge to the other side of the river where there was a lever switch hecould hold to operate the lock manually.

He would have to hold the lever back firmly as the train crossed. Hecould hear the rumble of the train now, and he took hold of the leverand leaned backward to apply his weight to it, locking the bridge. Hekept applying the pressure to keep the mechanism locked. Many livesdepended 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 tooclose; the tiny legs would never make it across the bridge in time. Theman almost left his lever to run and snatch up his son and carry him tosafety. 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 evenaware of the tiny broken body thrown mercilessly into the river by theon rushing train. Nor were they aware of the pitiful figure of thesobbing man, still clinging tightly to the locking lever long after thetrain 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 canbegin to understand the feelings of our Father in Heaven when Hesacrificed His Son to bridge the gap between us and eternal life.

Can there be any wonder that He caused the earth to tremble and theskies to darken when His Son died? How does He feel when we speed alongthrough life without giving a thought to what was done for us throughJesus Christ?

When was the last time we thanked Him for the sacrifice of His Son?