On a warm spring day Joe and his daughter Haley came out of their farm house just to enjoy the beautiful morning. This morning was especially beautiful because for the past four days it had been very cloudy and rained constantly! Joe and Sarah lived on a farm, but they were not farmers, their job was to take care of Medford Forest which began at the edge of their farm. As they were enjoying the sunshine and the warm breezes, they noticed that they could hear an unusual sound. It was like the sound of a distant waterfall, but it could not be a waterfall. The Black River ran through Medford Forest, but there were no waterfalls on the river. Haley yelled, “Let’s go and see what is making that noise!” She began to run across the field, but then she stopped! She had forgotten for a moment that Joe could not run across the field with her, Joe had crippled legs and had to go around on crutches. She ran back to Joe and they got into the station wagon and drove, bouncing across the field to the forest. They parked the station wagon at the edge of the forest and went carefully down the trail. They had to go carefully for two reasons; Joe did not want his crutches to slip on the soft ground and the noise was very loud in the forest and they still were not sure what was causing the noise.
When they got to the Black River they understood what was making the noise. All that rain for the past four days had changed the calm Black River into a raging flood. The river was twice as wide as it usually was, and trees were having their roots washed out from under them. Trees were falling into the river and making a huge log jam, which made the river rise more and run even faster. If a person were to fall into that river they could easily drown!
Just then Haley pointed at a small pile of branches that was racing down the river and yelled, “What is that on those branches? It looks like an animal! We have got to save it!” Just then Hayle stepped too close to the edge of the river and her foot slipped on the muddy bank! With a scream Haley fell into the raging flood. Joe acted very quickly! He used one crutch to brace himself against a tree truck, reached down and grabbed Haley by her hair! Haley screamed again because it hurt! Joe quickly let go of her hair and grabbed the belt loop of her jeans and pulled her out of the river (he had very strong arms because he used crutches all the time). As Haley lay on the bank gasping for breath, the pile of branches went speeding by. Joe reached out with his other crutch and stopped the pile of branches. The current of the river started to tear the pile of branches apart, but the small animal jumped from the pile of branches onto Joe’s crutch and Joe brought it safely to shore.
“It’s a baby raccoon”, said Haley, “The flood must have taken it away from its mother, we will have to take care of it!” Joe agreed, “We will take it home with us and make a nice place for it to live in the barn.” So Haley carefully picked up the baby raccoon and they went back up the trail to the car. Haley could not believe how cute the raccoon was, he had black fur around his eyes so that it looked like he was wearing a mask, he had black rings on his tail and the toes on his feet were almost like fingers. Haley asked, “Joe, what shall we name the raccoon, if he is going to be part of our family, he has to have a name!” Joe thought for a moment and then replied, “I think we should name him after my brother, let’s call him Daniel!” Haley agreed that Daniel was a great name for the raccoon so that is what they named him.
Daniel became part of the family and they all loved each other very much. Joe and Haley looked forward to many adventures with Daniel in the Medford Forest.
Application: We are a lot like Daniel in this story.
- Daniel was being swept away by a flood and he was going to die if he was not rescued.
- Humans are swept away by sin, and we are spiritually dead unless we are rescued.
- Joe reached out with his crutch and rescued Daniel from the river.
- Jesus reached out with his cross and rescued us from our sins.
- Daniel was adopted into Joe and Haley’s family.
- When we accept Jesus as our Savior we are adopted into God’s family.
In the Bible in Ephesians 1:4-7 it says:
Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. This is what He wanted to do, and it gave Him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace He has poured out on us who belong to His dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that He purchased our freedom with the blood of His Son and forgave our sins.
If you have never prayed and asked Jesus to forgive your sins and come into your life, please do it today. He is waiting to forgive you and welcome you into His family for eternity!