A Faded Message
The man pulled up to the stop sign. With the engine still running, he opened the door, hurried over to a telephone pole, stapled something on it, rushed back to his car, slammed the door and sped away. His behavior aroused my curiosity.
What did he post? Surely it must be something of great importance! Could it be as revolutionary as the 95 Theses Martin Luther posted or perhaps some radical manifesto? I wondered. “Oh,” I grunted my disappointment as I passed by, “Garage Sale.”
Long past the date of the garage sale, the sign still remained. The man did not feel the same urgency to take it down as he did to put it up. As a result, I saw that sign many times during the following winter months.
One day I thought about that sign. CONSIDER, not its message, but what happened to the message. It had faded away. All that was left was a bland piece of cardboard covered with plastic.
And so God posted a message on Calvary. The message went something like this, “And God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him, should not perish but have everlasting life …” The message posted was eternal, incorruptible, infallible, and yet, as with that message on that telephone pole, it can fade. It can fade in the hearts and lives of God’s people, you and me!
It is a message that cannot be posted on a telephone pole or even on the door of some church and then forgotten about. It must be posted in hearts and lived on in lives. It is up to us to keep it from fading, to make sure all who pass by will know that God loves them and that His Grace through Jesus Christ will save them.
Rev. Wendell Mettey
Revised 8/2/2014
