Johnny and the Cross

Johnny and his friends had had several drinks at the lakeside that summer night long ago and were having what they thought was a grand old time. Though it was dark outside with only faint moonlight, the friends had turned on the lights of their '55 Chevy so they could see as they partied. The water is warm and inviting in Arkansas and Johnny decided he would go out for a swim. He swam for quite a while by the twin streams of light as the headlights reflected across the lake. Suddenly though, the lake became dark, leaving Johnny disoriented and no longer able to find his way. The friends, having decided to play a little "joke" on Johnny, turned off the headlights and became very quiet.

Johnny became more and more tired and anxious as he swam on in the dark, not knowing which was the way to safety and which was the way of danger. Panic began to overtake him and his strength was just about gone. Suddenly, Johnny noticed a faint light in the water and he began to swim toward it. Drawing nearer to the light he was able to discern that it reflected the shape of a cross there in the water up ahead. Johnny swam with renewed energy and reaching the wooden cross in the water, he leapt toward it, threw his arms around it and clung there, having finally found a place of safety and of refuge on the old utility pole that had been left there when the area was filled in to become a lake. Johnny's friends meanwhile, realizing that he might be in trouble, began to call to him as they turned the lights back on so he could see where they were. Having caught his breath and rested, Johnny swam once again to safety.

Johnny's experience is not unlike many of ours as we journey through our lives. When we are young, we think we have safety as we go about our way, not heeding the warning of those who have traveled the way before us and who have found the life-giving cross of Christ. We may not even realize that we are walking in darkness until we are too far out to find our way back to the light. We have an enemy that lures us one small step at a time away from this light until one day we realize, in panic, our need. Whether we see it or not, there is a cross, a place of refuge, of salvation and healing that gives life eternal and in fullness. Sometimes we may think that coming to the cross of Christ is for sissies or for those who are less sophisticated than we, and we avoid the only life preserver there is. Would we be too proud to have clung to that cross if we had been Johnny? Would we be too proud to take hold of a life preserver if we were drowning?

Johnny was saved when he embraced and put his whole weight on that cross in the water. We are saved the same way. It was on a cross that Jesus paid the penalty for our sins 2000 years ago, and it is in coming to that cross in faith, turning from our sins and receiving forgiveness that we receive what the Scripture calls the "gift of eternal life" (Romans 6:23). This life is the life of God which He places within us by His Spirit. In Him we find peace, we find reconciliation with God, and we find meaning and purpose in life. Come to this cross today and find the life that is given because Jesus did not remain on the cross, but He was raised from the dead by the Father, and because He lives we can live also.

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Contributed by Daphne Harrington, Louisiana Tech University, email: mailto:Daphne@AFROTC.latech.edu