THE TRAIN

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
on 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?