MANY. MANY YEARS AGO, WHEN I WAS IN SECOND GRADE, AT ST.THOMAS’ PREP., SCHOOL IN COLOMBO, I LEARNT A POEM FROM THE BOOK THAT WAS ASSIGNED FOR US FOR ENGLISH. I’VE FORGOTTEN MOST OF WHAT I WAS TAUGHT TO US KIDS AT THAT TENDER AGE, BUT THIS POEM HOWEVER, AT LEAST PART OF IT, HAS STUCK WITH ME THESE MANY YEARS, AND I REMEBER WELL THAT PART OF THE POEM THAT WAS ABOUT A BRIDGE. I WOULD LIKE TO REPRODUCE THAT PART WHICH I STILL REMEMBER, AND NARRATE TO YOU A STORY ABOUT A “BRIDGE KEEPER AND HIS SON”; A STORY THAT I WAS TOLD, A LONG, LONG TIME AGO. READ ON…..
There are bridges on the rivers,
As pretty as you please;
But the bow that bridges heaven,
And overtops the trees,
And builds a road from earth to sky,
Is prettier far than these.
THE BRIDGE KEEPER AND HIS SON:
There was once a bridge which spanned a large river. During most of the day the bridge sat with its length running up and down the river paralleled with the banks, allowing ships to pass through freely on both sides of the bridge. But at certain times each day, a train would come along and the bridge would be turned sideways across the river, allowing a train to cross it.
A switchman/guard 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 into the distance through the dimming twilight and caught sight of the trainlights. He stepped to the control and waited until the train was within a prescribed distance when he was 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 wobble back and forth at the ends when the train came onto it, causing the train to jump the track and go crashing into the river. This would be a passenger train with many people on board. He left the bridge turned across the river, and hurried across the bridge to 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 on 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 run and snatch up his son and carry him to safety. But he realized that 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 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 onrushing train. Nor were they aware of the pitiful figure of the sobbing man, still clinging tightly 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 which went through this man’s heart, you can begin to understand the feelings of God, our Father in Heaven when He sacrificed His only Son to bridge the gap between us and Him, between hell and heaven, between death and eternal life. Can there be any wonder that He caused the earth to tremble and the skies to darken when His Son died on the cross so that you and I can cross that bridge and reach heaven’s shores? How does He feel when we speed along through life without giving a thought to what was done for us through Jesus Christ His son?
“FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON – JESUS CHRIST- THAT WHOSOEVER BELIEVES ON HIM SHOULD NOT PERISH BUT HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE” – John 3:16.
Will you pause for a moment and reflect on what God has done for you? Will you cross that bridge today?
God bless you,
– Pastor Dayalan Sanders.
