CHOOSE YOU THIS DAY WHOM YE WILL SERVE
I has been my experience that there are some people who
like to live on the edge precariously close to where Satan can cause
them to fall when they least expect it.
There is a line dividing the Lord's side from Satan's
side. When we try to live at the edge of the line and even try to put
one foot over on Satan's side we are placing that foot where there is
no solid footing and that foot can slip at any time and cause us to
fall.
Many years ago when I was the Director of the Dublan
Grade School I became very friendly with Professor Josué Saucedo who
was the Inspector of the State Schools in our Zone. One summer we
planned a trip to the Cascada de Basaseachic to spend a few days. He
and his wife took their two daughters with them and Naoma and I took
Claudia and Anthony with us. We packed the van with all of the camping
gear and food that we would need for the trip. We traveled from
Guerrero on a good graveled road to the falls and found a nice shady
camping spot on the banks of the stream that runs over the falls. We
set up camp and went to see where the water ran in a channel of solid
rock and pour over the edge to fall a thousand feet to the pool below.
We could not get close enough to the edge to see down where the water
fell into the pool below. The edge was rounding and sloped so that the
closer you got to the edge the steeper it became and was extremely
dangerous to approach past the level part of the edge. We decided to
find a trail down into the Canyon the next day and go down and get
pictures of the falls from down in front of the falls.
We went back to camp and had a good swim in the stream
near our camp and found the water to be pleasantly warm since it was
in June. We had supper and sat around the campfire visiting and
telling stories.
The next morning after a breakfast of Hot Cakes spread
liberally with butter and syrup, with a side of scrambled eggs "A la
Mexicana" we got ready to hike down the very steep trail into the
canyon. Naoma and I with Claudia and Anthony and the two Saucedo girls
began the steep descent winding back and forth in a chute between two
high cliffs. About half way down we came to a window in the rock
facing the falls. Through this window we took many pictures of the
perfect view of the falls. Anthony and the Saucedo girls went on down
ahead.
When I was ready to go on down Naoma and Claudia
decided to stay at the window and wait for us to go down and back
up.
I hurried on down to catch up with Anthony and the
girls. When I finally reached the bottom of the canyon I was about 100
yards below where the falls fell into it's pool. I was very hot and
sweating so I decided to take a dip in a nice deep pool that was
formed in the rock of the canyon. It looked very inviting and I
stripped off and dropped into the pool. Wow!!!! I came out of there
faster than I got in because it seemed like Ice water and I had been
expecting it to be like the water up in the stream above the falls. I
quickly got dressed reasoning that the evaporation of the water as it
fell cooled it down to very cold water. The big stream that came over
the falls turned into misty rain drops by the time it had fallen the
thousand feet to the pool below. There around the pool the mist formed
myriads of rainbows in the sunlight. The whole area was green with a
mossy plant that grew on the humid rocks that were watered by the
mist.
Just as I was finishing putting on my boots, Anthony
came running excitedly to tell me to come and see what he had drug out
of the pool. He had carried with him his little lasso rope. He saw
something floating around in the pool and had lassoed it and pulled it
to the edge of the pool. He was surprised to see that it was a leg of
a person. We decided to leave it alone and go and report it to the
authorities. We climbed back out the steep trail and finally arrived
at our welcome shady camp.
Anthony and the Girls excitedly told Professor Saucedo
and his wife what they had found down in the pool. The Professor went
immediately to report it to the authorities in the little town of
Basaseachic that was about a mile away from our camp.
When he returned he said that they had told him of the
tragedy that had happened about a week before. They said that a couple
had come to see the falls and had gone to try to see the bottom. As
they got closer and closer to the edge they finally realized their
danger and that the woman had panicked and grabbed hold of the man and
they had both fallen over undoubtedly hitting some jutting rocks on
the way down. The bodies had sunk down into the deep cold water and
had remained submerged until the day before they had recovered the
woman's body but it was minus a leg. They said that the man's body
still had not surfaced so they were unable to find it.
When we returned to the falls about twenty years later.
The area had been made into a National Park and the graveled road had
been replaced with a highway with a branch going around to a point on
the south side of the canyon. They had built a big parking area and
had made trials out to different points giving many good views of the
falls and the rugged canyon into which the water falls. This made it
very easy to get good pictures of the falls and not be in any danger
of falling off the edge of the cliff. As we looked across that rugged
canyon at the beautiful falls with the rainbows surrounding the bottom
we were reminded of the tragic fall of the couple that fell years
before. We looked over at the edge and could see a pipe railing along
the edge of that dangerous cliff. When we went around to the little
town to have some dinner at a little restaurant we told the lady about
the fall of the people years before. She calmly stated that it was a
frequent happening and that just last week a young couple had crawled
under the pipe and had fallen to their deaths. Their bodies had just
recently been recovered.
In our lives if we venture to close to Satan's side of
the line we place ourselves in danger. The farther we go the more
dangerous it becomes and the more difficult it is to come back from
that steep slippery footing.
Let us all choose this day to serve the Lord and stay
on the Lord's side of the line. We must not try to live on the edge
and tempt Satan to lure us over to his dangerous slippery side where
we are constantly in danger of a tragic fall from which it is so
difficult to return.
The Lord has given us repentance to use constantly in
returning to the safety of living on the Lord's side of the line which
is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
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