When I was a “little” guy living on the farm in Western Nebraska, we had railroad tracks about a 1/4 mile from our house. I remember going up next to the tracks and watching the train go by. Clickety-clack, clickety-clack, you could hear the wheels rolling on the track. I would count the cars and sometimes these trains were upwards of 150 cars. Two, three, or four engines pulling the cars and bringing up the rear was a caboose. There were flatbed cars, grain cars, coal cars, box cars, cars carrying semi trailers that carried automobiles, lumber cars, etc. Most of the cars you could see what was on them, but with the box cars the cargo was out of sight. There were times when I would pick up rocks and through them at the box cars and watch them glance off. If Mom or Dad caught me doing that, I was in TROUBLE!! They told me the rock could hit me as it glanced off, but I didn’t listen to them because it had never happened and I figured it probably never would, so I kept throwing them. HA!! It was also fun to put a penny on the track and then try to find it after the train ran over it. Out of all the pennies I wasted doing this, I can only remember finding one of them and was it ever flattened out (Wasn’t supposed to do that either).
In the winter time, there would be a big snow plow mounted to the front engine. I always thought to myself, why do they need the snow plow? Wasn’t the train heavy enough to stay on the tracks no matter how deep the snow was? What I didn’t know was that the snow could actually cause the train to derail and the derailed cars would end up in a heap at the side of the tracks. I can remember a couple times where cars would jump the tracks and derail (summertime). What a mess!!
Today, I find myself watching people. Most of them you can pretty much tell what is going on, but some are like the box cars. What kind of cargo are they carrying? Anger? Happiness? Grudges? Plots for trouble? Drug/alcohol problems? Family issues? Problems at work? No job? Money issues? Health issues? I wonder, is the cargo heavy enough to cause them to “Derail?” Will they end up in a heap somewhere? Is there a snow plow to clear the way for them? Do they have God in their life? So many questions!! That is why we need to be kind, patient, steadfast in our own beliefs, a living example to those around us, and have God first in our lives. Let Him be the snow plow so we can stay on our tracks.
SMILE God loves YOU!! Have a good day all.
