Sound of Warning

"Wow!" Greyson whispered to his sister as they listened to the pastor's sermon on hell. "Do you think he's trying to scare us or what?" Rosalie shrugged. The kids didn't usually attend church, but they were spending a few days with their aunt.

Later that day, Aunt Ella set a box on the table and lifted out a round, white object. "I bought this smoke detector yesterday. Let's see if it works."

Aunt Ella put batteries in place. Then she pressed a small, round button. Immediately, an earsplitting shriek filled the room. Rosalie screamed and jumped back, while Greyson covered his ears.

Aunt Ella laughed at the look on their faces. She took her finger off the button, and the noise stopped. "Whenever there's smoke from a fire in the house, the alarm will go off," she said.

"It's awful!" said Rosalie. "Why does it have to be so loud and scary?"

"It's supposed to be that way," Greyson said. "If it weren't loud, you might not hear it, especially if you're sleeping. Right, Aunt Ella?"

"Right," his aunt replied. "The purpose of this thing is not to scare people. It's to warn them of danger so they can get to safety--much like the sermon we heard in church today."

Rosalie and Greyson looked at each other. "Well, that warning this morning did scare me," said Rosalie. "I don't want to go to hell."

"Me neither," said Greyson.

"You don't have to," Aunt Ella told them. "The Bible warns us about hell to help us understand how good and just God is and how our sin has separated us from Him. But Jesus took the punishment for our sin when He died on the cross so we could be forgiven. Warnings about hell aren't meant to scare us--their purpose is to make us see how serious our sin is and how Jesus is the only one who can rescue us from it. When we trust in Him, we don't ever have to be afraid."

Greyson nodded thoughtfully. "I've heard before that I need Jesus, but I've never really understood it until now."

"Me neither," said Rosalie. "I want to trust in Him!" Sherry L. Kuyt