No Sneaking In

"Hey, Taj," whispered Caleb after the two boys had gone to bed. "I forgot the lures Dad gave me to bring along tomorrow. I left them in my room." The boys were going on a fishing trip with their church group early the next morning, and Caleb was spending the night at Taj's, who lived a few houses down from him."Let's run over to your house and get them," said Taj."It's too late," replied Caleb. "Everybody will be sleeping.""We'll just sneak in so we don't wake anybody up," said Taj. "If we don't do it now, we might forget in the morning." After thinking it over, Caleb agreed.The boys quietly left the house and hurried to Caleb's home. As expected, the house was dark. "I'll pry the screen off my bedroom window," Caleb whispered. "That way we won't wake anyone up."Caleb carefully removed the screen and started climbing in as quietly as he could. He had one foot through the window when a voice yelled, "Stop!" Caleb froze as he recognized the figure of his father towering in the shadows, holding a baseball bat. "It's me, Dad!" Caleb called out. "Me and Taj!"Dad flicked on the light. "Caleb? Taj? What's going on here? Why are you sneaking in through the window?" Caleb gulped. He knew he and Taj had a lot to explain.The next day, the boys told their church group leader what had happened. "My dad thought we were burglars," said Caleb. "He was pretty upset. I'm definitely never doing that again.""You boys trying to climb in through the window instead of using the door reminds me of our lesson last week," said Mr. Bates. "Do you remember what name we learned for Jesus?""Um…oh, I know," said Taj. "He's called the door because it's only through Him that anyone can enter heaven.""Right," said Mr. Bates. "You couldn't sneak into your house, Caleb, just like we could never sneak into heaven. It would be impossible, and we've done nothing to deserve spending eternity with God. But Jesus offers us the incredible gift of salvation--He died on the cross so our sins could be forgiven and we could become God's children. He's the door, the only way we can enter into eternal life." –Jan L. Hansen