Warning: This story is NOT suitable for those who are easily distressed.
There was once a big turntable bridge which spanned a large river. During most of the day the bridge set its length running up and down the river parallel with the banks, allowing ships to pass through freely on both sides of the bridge. But at a certain day, a certain train would come along, and the bridge would be turned sideways across the river allowing the train to cross.
A switchman sat in a small 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 to the distance through the dimming twilight, and caught sight of the train’s light. He stepped to the controls and waited until the train was into position, but to his horror, he found the control the locking control didn’t work. If the bridge was not locked securely into position, it would wobble back and forth at the ends when the train came onto itm causing the train to jump the track and go crashing into the river. This would be a passenger train with so 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 were a lever which he could use to operate the lock manually. He would have to hold the lever back firmly as the train passed. 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!”, but the train was too close; the tiny legs would never make it across the bridge in time. The man almost left the lever to run and snatch up his son and carry him to safety, but he realised 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 a his decision. The train sped swiftly and safely on its way, and no one aboard was even aware of tiny broken body thrown mercilessly into the river by the rushing train. Nor were they aware of the pitiful figure of a sobbing man, still clinging tightly to the locking lever long after the train has passed. They didn’t see him walking home more slowing then he had ever walked – to tell his wife how he had sacrificed her son.
Now, if you could comprehend the emotions which went through this man’s heart, you can begin to understand the feeling of our Heavenly Father when He sacrificed His Son to the bridge the gap between us and Eternal Life. Can there be any wonder that He crossed the Earth to tremble and the skies to darken when His Son died? And how does He feel when we speed along through life without giving a thought to what was done for us through Jesus Christ? When was the last time you thanked Him for the sacrifice of His Son?
