Summer was over, fall had come and gone, and now it was winter at Joe & Haley’s farm at the edge of Medford Forest. One morning Haley was in a grumpy mood when she sat down for a late breakfast! The day had started out terribly! Just before she had woken up, she had had a dream about being caught in a bad snow storm. When she woke up, she found out that it had snowed, she was covered with snow and cold! She had forgotten to shut the window of her bedroom and when it began to snow outside, the wind had blown the snow right onto her bed. Haley jumped out of bed, immediately slipped on the snowy floor, and fell! The snow managed to get inside her pajamas! The extremely cold snow right on her skin made her scream and of course this woke Joe, he grabbed his crutches and went to Haley’s room as fast as he could to see what had happened to her! When Joe saw Haley lying on the floor in a snow drift he just started to laugh! This made Haley even more mad! Before breakfast Haley decided to go outside and shovel a path to the barn. She stomped out of the house and slammed the door! When she slammed the door, all the snow on the porch roof slid off and landed right on Haley and knocked her down again! A lot of the snow went inside her coat and inside her shirt!
So, Haley was grumpy when she finally sat down for breakfast, she complained to Joe, “Winter is awful! There is nothing to do, and Daniel sleeps in his hollow tree almost all the time!” Joe answered, “Winter is not so bad, there are a lot of things to do! Today let’s take the snowmobile and go exploring in Medford Forest, we might have an awesome winter adventure!” Haley agreed to go with Joe even though she did not think that they would have any kind of an adventure. Joe and Haley dressed warmly with several layers of clothes under their snow suits. They got the snowmobile out of the barn and Joe started it and used bungee cords to attach his crutches to the snowmobile. Joe yelled above the noise of the motor, “Hang on tight Haley!” The Joe popped the clutch and hit the throttle and the snowmobile roared across the field toward the forest! Unfortunately, Haley was no longer with him, Haley thought that she did not need to hold on, so when Joe started the snowmobile Haley slid right off the end of the snowmobile and landed with a thud on the ground! Joe was halfway to the forest before he realized that Haley was not with him. He turned the snowmobile around and went back and got Haley. This time she held on tight, so she did not fall off again!
It was a beautiful day to take a ride on the snowmobile! The sun was shining on the fresh snow, there was no wind, and it was not very cold! The snowmobile threw the powdery snow up in the air as it sped toward the forest! It was a lot of fun, and even Haley began to have a good time! When they got to the edge of the forest Joe guided the snowmobile down a wide trail and skillfully avoided the trees and bushes! They crossed the frozen Black River on the ice and went deep into the forest. As they came around a curve in the trail, they saw the most amazing sight! Standing in the trail was a big deer! It was a buck; he had a huge set of antlers and was a magnificent creature! The buck did not like the snowmobile, so he raised his white tail and ran gracefully down the trail ahead of the snowmobile. Joe slowed down so that they would not get too close to the deer, and Haley got out her cell phone and took a couple of pictures! There was another curve in the trail, and then it happened! The deer left the trail and started to run down into a valley. There was a pile of fallen trees that the big buck tried to jump, but he did not quite make it! The buck came down on top of fallen tree and his right front leg got caught between two big branches and he could not move! Joe immediately stopped the snowmobile and Haley jumped off and ran to help the deer, but the deer did not want to be helped! He kicked at Haley with his back legs and when she tried to approach him from the front, he tried to stab her with his antlers! Joe yelled, “Haley stay back, do not get close to him! His hooves are very sharp and can injury you badly, and the points of his antlers are sharp and can kill you!” Haley wisely decided that she did not want to get close to that buck, but she yelled to Joe, “I just want to help him! Why doesn’t he understand that? We cannot just leave him like this, he will die!”
Joe had a plan; he was not going to let that beautiful buck suffer and die! Joe slowly and carefully drove the snowmobile off the trail and down to the pile of fallen trees. Then Joe unhooked the bungee cord and picked up one of his crutches. Using the crutch, Joe pushed on the fallen tree and was able to move it just a little bit! The big branches moved away from the buck’s leg just enough so that he could pull his leg out and with a single bound he jumped off the fallen trees and ran through the woods!
Later when Joe and Haley were back at the farmhouse enjoying some hot chocolate, they talked about their adventure in the forest with the big buck. Joe said, “Our adventure with the buck who was stuck reminds me of people who do not know God. Everyone has done things that are wrong, and these wrong things are called sin. People are stuck in sin and cannot get out. God knew that we could not get ‘unstuck’ from sin, and when we are stuck in sin we cannot go to heaven after this life. So, God came up with a plan to rescue us just like I came up with a plan to rescue the deer. God sent His Son Jesus to die for our sins so that we do not have to be stuck in sin any longer. But people are a lot like that deer, they do not want help! People try to ignore God and they end up fighting against God just like that buck wanted to attack and hurt you. People must accept God’s help to get unstuck from sin just like the buck accepted my help when I moved the dead tree. Once people accept God’s help, they are free just like the deer was free when he accepted my help.” Haley said, “I understand more about being stuck in sin and God’s plan of forgiveness now! I’m glad that I have asked Jesus to forgive my sins!” Joe answered, “I am so glad you have asked Jesus to forgive you, the Bible calls this being ‘born again’, when a person asks Jesus to forgive their sins and start a new life! It is just the beginning; they are starting a new adventure of being a Christian! That person spends the rest of their life on this earth growing in their Christian faith! Being born again is just the first step! We will talk more about growing in Christ later!
Application:
We are all stuck in sin, in fact, we were all born with a sin nature.
In the Bible in Romans 3:23 it says:
For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.”
God does not want any of us to stay stuck in sin, so He sent His Son to die on the cross to pay for all our sins.
In the Bible in John 3:16-17 it says:
For this is how God loved the world: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him.
The trap of sin has been released, but each of us must decide that we want to leave the life of sin and follow God’s way. We must accept God’s freedom by believing in Jesus and asking for the forgiveness of our sins.
If you have never made the decision to follow Jesus, please do it today!