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Did you see the story earlier this month about an air traffic controller at JFK Airport who has been suspended for taking his young son to work with him and allowing the boy to clear the planes for departure and speak to other pilots as they flew in and out of one of the world’s busiest airports? Thankfully, the incident passed off without a disaster occurring. 

It reminded me of a story I read recently about another man who took his son to work with him one day. The man’s job was to raise a drawbridge to allow steamers to pass along the river below. When the steamer had passed, the drawbridge would then be lowered so that trains could pass over the bridge safely. The son, enjoying a day with dad, soon did what all boys like him would, beginning to peak into the trapdoor that was always left open so that the father could see the machinery below. Suddenly the boy lost his footing and fell into the gears. As the father reached down to pull his son out, he heard the whistle of a train, full of people, and approaching so fast that it would be impossible to stop. The bridge must be lowered. The father now had an impossible dilemma. Does he save his son, knowing that to do so would mean the train below crashing with a great loss of life? Or does he save the crowded train, knowing that in doing so he must sacrifice his only son? What would you do? 

The wonderful message of the Christian Gospel is that God too faced that dilemma. He looked down and saw a world full of sinners, men and women living in rebellion against Him. Careless about the danger their sins put them in, they were heading towards an eternity in hell, separate from God. God knew too, that the only way we could be saved was through the death of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. What did He do? John chapter 3 verse 16 tells us: 

God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.