Across the street from my childhood home was a vacant lot with a creek (usually dry) running through it. One Fall evening a friend and I were walking down the creek bed. The lot was covered with tall, dead, dry grass. We didn’t even have to say anything. Both of us knew what the other was thinking. I grabbed a bunch of grass and stuffed it back into a hole in the creek bank. My friend took out his new cigarette lighter and touched the flame to the tinder-dry fuel.
Immediately we knew we’d done the wrong thing. Flame shot out of the hole, licked up the bank, and ignited the grass on the surface. We stomped, kicked, and silently vowed that we would never again do such a profoundly stupid thing! After a brief but exhausting battle, the fire was out.
But our troubles had only begun. The town Fire Marshall, who lived just down the street, had seen the whole thing! And his son had been with us! Now, which of the following alternatives do you suppose occurred?
1) He chewed us up one side and down the other, threatened us within an inch of our lives, and made us wish we had never known what fire was.
2) He said, “Don’t worry, all kids play with fire.” And then he gave us free fire extinguishers and flame-retardant clothes (without telling our parents, of course), so that we and all of our pyromaniac friends would be safe.
For the record, the correct answer is #1! Not exactly a shock, right? Yet our “enlightened” society “fights” (?) moral fires (fornication resulting in unwed pregnancy, abortion, AIDS, etc.) by handing out fire extinguishers and flame-retardant clothes (contraceptive devices & pills). Anyone who dares even to mention abstinence will be scornfully invited to join the “real world.” It is our sinful world, however, that we must call to face reality: “For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and He ponders all his paths. His own iniquities entrap the wicked man, and he is caught in the cords of his sin. He shall die for his lack of instruction, and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray” (Proverbs 5:21-23).
–Joe Slater
