A number of years ago, a high school senior in our town took his own life. At his funeral, an aunt spoke of when he was a little boy visiting her home. Her kitchen window was two stories up from the back yard. While she was fixing dinner he climbed up a tree to a limb where he could look in her kitchen window at eye level with her. She was startled, to say the least.
But once he got out on the limb he could not get back down and his father had to climb up the tree and help him down to the ground. Then she said that that was the story of his short life. In the end, he had gotten himself out on a limb and couldn’t get down.
Her point was that many people in life are out on a limb and don’t know how to get down. We need to be there to help them, but, even more importantly, One greater than any of us is always available.
God provides a way down. He sent His Son to die for our sins. There is no way we can earn salvation or deserve heaven as our eternal home. We are out there on a limb, but the Father is there to come and get us and bring us down. That is made possible through his Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and master. That is the message of the cross. Let’s accept it for ourselves, and then share the message with a lost and dying world.