The Drawbridge of Grace

Sometimes we get so caught with up with our Christianity that we forget the supreme sacrifice involved in its purchase. I am reminded of a story I read in John Guest’s Commentary on Romans, about a man who operated a giant drawbridge. One day he took his young son with him in order to show him what it was he did every day. He led the young lad down into the cavernous workings of the bridge that they might marvel together over its powerful machinery. While down there the man received a phone call that a train, well ahead of schedule, was speeding toward the bridge. There was just enough time for him to race to the top of the tower and flip the switch to lower it into place. Patiently he instructed his son not to budge from his tight position of safety. The father reached the tower with just enough time to lower the bridge. In that same split second he looked down to find that his son had moved into the jaws of the powerful machinery. He had to decide between the hundreds of lives speeding toward him in the train or the precious life of his only son. In great pain and anguish he flipped the switch. Down came the bridge, grinding the life out of his son. The train rushed by and as it did he could see people sitting there, in the comfort of their dining cars, chatting merrily with one another, totally oblivious to the enormous sacrifice that had just been made for their lives. Beating his fists on the tower window, the man screamed out against the stiff faces streaking past, a people for whom he had made so dear a sacrifice. “Don’t you know that I gave my son for you?” “Don’t you know that you are alive now because he yielded up his life?” “Does anybody care?” John concludes his remarks by saying, "God looks at the indifference of humanity rushing by Him, careless and unconcerned by the enormous cost of their salvation.” We compound His anguish when we fail to remember that He paid the ultimate price for something he offers to humanity free. All of us were runaway trains given the drawbridge of grace that we might have life and that abundantly.