Father and Son

For my first year of EFY I traveled to the University of Utah with my brother and a good friend. Excited and enjoying the experience, we waited for the welcoming fireside by our session director. After all these years I still remember the story.

He told a story of a train controller and the man’s son. One day his son came to work with him and they enjoyed a nice day. He heard a train whistle and knew he needed to raise the bridge and let the train go through. Unfortunately at the moment he needed to push the lever and lower the bridge, he looked down and saw that his son had slipped through and was stuck in the gears of the bridge. The father had to make a decision whether to save the hundreds of people in the train or his son. The father was heartbroken but pushed the lever to lower the bridge. Just like this father, Heavenly Father also made a decision. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son that whosoever would believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

When my session director used this story to make a startling metaphor, he was trying to make an impact on our minds. Sometimes as youth we feel like we have heard everything and know all, so I think we needed something that penetrated into our hearts. I am not saying this is exactly doctrine but I will say that it helped me understand the love that our Heavenly Father has for each one of us. I know it was always part of The Plan that Christ would die but this story helped me actually feel it in a different way. I had a newfound love and gratefulness for Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.