Whenever we whiz past workers on the interstate, I cringe, especially if they are not standing behind the "protection" of those concrete barriers. What if one of them slipped and fell? What if a couple of them were engaging in horseplay and a little shove propelled one into traffic? What if… My imagination can run overtime with those things, I'm afraid, but even if I were not to blame, I would feel terrible if he fell in front of my car.
I know that is so because when I was a child, one of my parents' friends accidentally killed a child who was riding his bike around his neighborhood. No, it was not the man's fault. The boy was not watching where he was going and simply whizzed out into the middle of the street. Maybe, as an inexperienced child, he thought a car could stop on a dime. I don't know, but he was killed instantly.
Our friend was a wreck. Witnesses stood by him and he was cleared of all culpability, but he still had a hard time with it. Over and over he kept thinking, "I killed an innocent child," and the word "accident" made no difference to him whatsoever.
I would feel the same way, and I believe you would, too. Being responsible for the death of anyone at all, much less an innocent, would be a terrible burden to bear. Would there be anything we wouldn't do for that family to try to make amends?
Yet we are all guilty of killing an innocent person. Every one of us who has sinned even one sin—if that were possible—has murdered the Son of God. Does it haunt you the way killing that child haunted our friend? Would you do anything to make amends?
And the worst of it is this—for us it wasn't even an accident. And in the words of the old hymn, every time we sin, we "crucify him once again." If it made us feel as bad as it ought to, maybe we wouldn't have such a difficult time with temptation. If we truly felt horrible about it, we might just be able to overcome.
Something to think about this morning.
For as touching those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come, and then fell away, it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. (Heb 6:4-6)
Dene Ward
I know that is so because when I was a child, one of my parents' friends accidentally killed a child who was riding his bike around his neighborhood. No, it was not the man's fault. The boy was not watching where he was going and simply whizzed out into the middle of the street. Maybe, as an inexperienced child, he thought a car could stop on a dime. I don't know, but he was killed instantly.
Our friend was a wreck. Witnesses stood by him and he was cleared of all culpability, but he still had a hard time with it. Over and over he kept thinking, "I killed an innocent child," and the word "accident" made no difference to him whatsoever.
I would feel the same way, and I believe you would, too. Being responsible for the death of anyone at all, much less an innocent, would be a terrible burden to bear. Would there be anything we wouldn't do for that family to try to make amends?
Yet we are all guilty of killing an innocent person. Every one of us who has sinned even one sin—if that were possible—has murdered the Son of God. Does it haunt you the way killing that child haunted our friend? Would you do anything to make amends?
And the worst of it is this—for us it wasn't even an accident. And in the words of the old hymn, every time we sin, we "crucify him once again." If it made us feel as bad as it ought to, maybe we wouldn't have such a difficult time with temptation. If we truly felt horrible about it, we might just be able to overcome.
Something to think about this morning.
For as touching those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come, and then fell away, it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. (Heb 6:4-6)
Dene Ward
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