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To
Everything There is a Season: . A Time to Weep, A Time to
Laugh.
Ecclesiastes 3
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The Train on the Bridge
There was once a bridge that 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 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?
(author unknown)
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Return HOME from The
Train on the Bridge
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