The Bridge

I love this story! I used it in my talk I gave during Sacrament last week, it's called "The Bridge".

There was once a big turntable bridge which spanned a large river. During most of the day the bridge sat with it’s length running up and down the river paralleled with the banks, allowing ships to pass through freely on both sides of the bridge. But at certain times each day, a train would come along and the bridge would be turned sideways across the river allowing a train to cross it.

A switchman sat in a small shack on one side of the river where he operated the controls to turn the bridge and lock it into place as the train crossed. One evening as the switchman was waiting for the last train of the day to come, he looked off into the distance through the dimming twilight, and caught sight of the trains lights. He stepped to the control and waited until the train was within a prescribed distance when he was to turn the bridge. He turned the bridge into position for the train to cross, and moved the lever to lock the bridge into position. But, to his horror, he found the locking control didn’t work. If the bridge was not securely in position it would wobble back and forth at the ends when the train came onto it, causing the train to jump the track and go crashing into the river. This would be a passenger train with many people aboard.

He left the bridge turned across the river, and hurried across the bridge to the other side of the river where there was a lever which he could hold to operate the lock manually. He would have to hold the lever back firmly as the train crossed. He could hear the rumble of the train now, and he took hold of the lever and leaned backward to apply his weight to it, locking the bridge. He kept applying the pressure to keep the mechanism locked. Many lives depended on this man’s strength.

When coming across the bridge form the direction of his control shack, he heard a sound that made his blood run cold. "Daddy, where are you?" His four year old son was crossing the bridge to look for him. His first impulse was to cry out to the child, "Run! Run!" But the train was too close, the tiny legs would never make it across the bridge in time. The man almost left his lever to run and snatch up his son and carry him home to safety. But he realized that he could not get back to the lever. Either the people on the train or his little son must die.

He took a moment to make his decision. The train sped safely and swiftly on its way, and no one aboard there was even aware of the tin y broken body thrown mercilessly into the river by the on-rushing train. Nor were they aware of the pitiful figure of a sobbing man, still clinging tightly to the locking lever long after the train had passed. They didn’t see him walking home more slowly than he had ever walked to tell his wife how he had sacrificed their son.

Now if you can comprehend the emotions which went through this man’s hear, you can begin to understand the feelings of our Father in Heaven when he sacrificed His Son to bridge the gap between us and eternal life. Can there be any wonder that He caused the earth to tremble and the skies to darken when His Son died? How does He feel when we speed along through life without giving a thought to what was done for us through Jesus?

When was the last time you thanked Him for the sacrifice of His Son?