Sacrifice for greater good
Just recently I read a story told by Dr. James Kennedy from Ft. Lauderdale who shared how back in the days of the Great Depression, a Missouri man named John Griffith was the controller of a great railroad drawbridge across the Mississippi River. One day, in the summer of 1837, he decided to take his eightyear-old son, Greg, with him to work.
At noon, John Griffith put the bridge up to allow ships to pass and sat on the observation deck with his son to eat lunch.
Suddenly, the Memphis Express, with 400 passengers on board, was roaring toward the raised bridge.
He leaped from the observation deck and ran back to the control tower.
Just before throwing the master lever he glanced down for any ships below. There a sight caught his eye that caused his heart to leap and pound into his throat. Greg had slipped from the observation deck and gotten his leg was caught in the cogs of the two main gears operating the bridge.
That was his son down there – yet there were 400 passengers on the train. John knew what he had to do, so he buried his head in his left arm and pushed the master switch forward.
That great massive bridge lowered into place just as the Memphis Express began to roar across the river.
When John Griffith lifted his head with his face smeared with tears, he looked into the passing windows of the train. There were businessmen casually reading their afternoon papers, finely dressed ladies in the dining car sipping coffee, and children pushing long spoons into their dishes of ice cream.
No one looked at the control house, and no one looked at the great gear box.
John Griffith cried out: “I sacrificed my son for you people! Don’t you care?”
The train rushed by, but nobody heard the father’s words, which recalled Lamentations 1:12, “Is it nothing to you, all who pass by?” Before this pandemic we may be like the people on that train, going on our way with no thought of what might be awaiting us in the future, no one thinking of God or of dying, just doing what we always do, going to work, coming home, paying bills and if there may be a time we were not too busy; then maybe on Christmas or Easter go to church to appease our conscience.
I don't believe God has caused this virus but has allowed it to happen to slow us down and wake us up to see who really is still in control.
In this story, the father sacrificed his son so the lives of the people in those dining cars might be saved.
This same thing happened over 2,000 years ago when God in heaven gave his one and only son Jesus to die on a cross for our sins and if we confess them to Jesus we might live with him in heaven and not be lost for all eternity in a place called Hell. (see Revelations 20:15)