This past Sunday in our morning worship services, I shared an edited video clip of the movie MOST. The full movie itself can easily be found for sale online in DVD format. Multiple edited copies are also posted on YouTube. The particular one I showed can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8XsKwtAOgI&feature=related.
This video is based on a classic story about a drawbridge operator and his only son. It beautifully illustrates God’s love for us in Christ. If you prefer a printed version, as some do, I am posting it below. While the story is readily available through a simple Google search on the web, my particular source is listed at the bottom of the page. I hope this is helpful to all who communicate the good news of God in Jesus Christ.
A man had the duty to raise a drawbridge to allow the steamers to pass on the river below and to lower it again for trains to cross over the river on land. One day, this man's son visited him, desiring to watch his father at work. Quite curious, as most boys are, he peeked into a trapdoor that was always left open so his father could keep an eye on the great machinery that raised and lowered the bridge.
Suddenly, the boy lost his footing and tumbled into the gears. As the father tried to reach down and pull him out, he heard the whistle of an approaching train. He knew the train would be full of people and that it would be impossible to stop the fast-moving locomotive, therefore, the bridge must be lowered!
A terrible dilemma confronted him: if he saved the people, his son would be crushed in the cogs. Frantically, he tried to free the boy, but to no avail. Finally, the father put his hand to the lever that would start the machinery. He paused and then, with tears he pulled it. The giant gears began to work and the bridge clamped down just in time to save the train.
The passengers, not knowing what the father had done, were laughing and making merry; yet the bridge keeper had chosen to save their lives at the cost of his son's.
In all of this there is a parable: the heavenly Father, too, saw the blessed Savior being nailed to a cross while people laughed and mocked and spit upon Him and yet, "He spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all."
Source: James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House, 1988), p. 38.
This video is based on a classic story about a drawbridge operator and his only son. It beautifully illustrates God’s love for us in Christ. If you prefer a printed version, as some do, I am posting it below. While the story is readily available through a simple Google search on the web, my particular source is listed at the bottom of the page. I hope this is helpful to all who communicate the good news of God in Jesus Christ.
A man had the duty to raise a drawbridge to allow the steamers to pass on the river below and to lower it again for trains to cross over the river on land. One day, this man's son visited him, desiring to watch his father at work. Quite curious, as most boys are, he peeked into a trapdoor that was always left open so his father could keep an eye on the great machinery that raised and lowered the bridge.
Suddenly, the boy lost his footing and tumbled into the gears. As the father tried to reach down and pull him out, he heard the whistle of an approaching train. He knew the train would be full of people and that it would be impossible to stop the fast-moving locomotive, therefore, the bridge must be lowered!
A terrible dilemma confronted him: if he saved the people, his son would be crushed in the cogs. Frantically, he tried to free the boy, but to no avail. Finally, the father put his hand to the lever that would start the machinery. He paused and then, with tears he pulled it. The giant gears began to work and the bridge clamped down just in time to save the train.
The passengers, not knowing what the father had done, were laughing and making merry; yet the bridge keeper had chosen to save their lives at the cost of his son's.
In all of this there is a parable: the heavenly Father, too, saw the blessed Savior being nailed to a cross while people laughed and mocked and spit upon Him and yet, "He spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all."
Source: James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House, 1988), p. 38.