A splash in the eye is what got my attention.
Huffing in the heat of the late morning, I gingerly hopped over several lines of train track coming out of Chicago’s Union train station. Having cleared the last of the rails, something wet plopped on my head.
The only place it could have come from was the high-rise off to my right, known as “The Residences at Riverbend.” Currently, you can buy a one-bedroom condo for 404,900. Need a little more elbow room? A two-bedroom unit will set you back between $539,000 and $825,000. But if you really want to spread out (and if you have just shy of a million bucks on hand), grab a three-bedroom unit.
I looked up and around and saw nothing that might have caused the splash on my face. Then I looked higher—and found the source. Two squeegee-wielding window washers slathered suds on windows so high, I could barely make them out.
The Riverbend condo building is 37 stories tall. Short by Chicago standards—but plenty high enough when you’re standing next to it. Or washing windows outside of it!
Several hundred feet up, two men dangled from ropes whose knotted ends danced lazily on the sidewalk in front of me. The workers might as well have been ants on a distant limb. I paused. Pondered. Took pictures. And zoomed in on these daredevils with my iPad camera.
Who in the world would do this? Who would willingly suspend themselves several hundred feet above the pavement with nothing but a couple of ropes to guarantee their safety? No doubt those ropes are reasonably reliable—but the hefty insurance premiums these workers pay bear testimony to the inherent danger.
A more sobering question then followed. When it comes to eternal life, who in the world would be so foolish as to suspend themselves over the flimsy hope that God might let them into heaven if their good deeds outweigh their bad?
Nowhere in Scripture do we find such a hope, but the idea is rampant in our culture. Nothing less than receiving the forgiveness of Jesus and His rule over your life will grant you eternal life.
Precisely what do you depend on to get you into heaven?
The Bible says, “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of Jesus Christ so that you may KNOW that you have eternal life.”
Are you dangling from a risky rope…or certain of eternal life?