The Virus

"Dad!" Everett stared at his computer screen in dismay. "Chase just told me there's a virus in the game I downloaded! It could ruin the hard drive.""Oh no!" Dad said. "How much damage has it done?"Everett groaned and covered his eyes. "I don't know yet.""What's a virus?" asked Rachel, climbing onto Dad's knee. "Isn't that what gives you the flu?""That's right," said Dad. "When a virus gets into your body, it can make you sick. But a different kind of virus can get into a computer, and once it does, it can spread and take control of the programs on your computer so they don't work anymore.""I don't know how to fix this, Dad," said Everett. "Can you help me?""I'm not sure what to do either," said Dad. "But I have a friend who works with computers--I'll check with him." Dad smiled at Rachel. "We need to get rid of viruses as soon as possible--whether they're on the computer or in our bodies.""Yeah. We have to take medicine to make us all better," said Rachel as Everett turned the computer off.By the following week, the computer had been fixed and a new anti-virus program installed. "I know two kinds of viruses," announced Rachel as Everett was using the computer one evening. "The kind that makes computers sick and the kind that makes people sick.""I know a third kind," said Dad. "Sin is like a virus that made the whole world sick. When the first people God created, Adam and Eve, disobeyed Him, sin came into the world and infected it. It took control of people's minds and hearts and makes us do selfish, wrong things instead of loving and obeying God." "Can we get cleaned up like Everett's computer?" Rachel asked with wide eyes."We certainly can! We have something even better than an antivirus program. Jesus died and then rose from the dead to save the world from sin. When we trust in Him, He removes our sin and makes us new so our hearts work the way they should--it's like He gives us a new hard drive! Even though we still do wrong things sometimes, we can confess and turn away from our sin, and Jesus will forgive us and make us clean."- Tanya Ferdinandusz