Underground Railroad

"Hi, Rosetta," said Mom as she set a bag of groceries on the counter. "Lots of homework today?" Rosetta looked up from the books and papers scattered across the table. "Yeah. I have a report due on Tuesday.""Oh? On what?" asked Mom as she started putting food in the refrigerator."Harriet Tubman. She was a slave who escaped to freedom on the Underground Railroad. After she made it to freedom herself, she went back to help others escape slavery. If she had been caught, she would have been enslaved again!" "Wow," said Mom. "That's pretty brave.""Yeah." Rosetta leaned back in her chair. "I don't think I could ever be that brave. If I had escaped slavery and was able to make it to freedom, I'd want to stay there! I don't think I'd risk going back for people I didn't even know."Mom was quiet for a moment. "Well, I sure am glad someone was willing to rescue me from slavery," she said."What?" Rosetta straightened up. "What are you talking about?""You and I--along with every other person--were born into a different kind of slavery," Mom explained. "We weren't enslaved to a human master like Harriet Tubman, but the Bible tells us that everyone is born into bondage to sin. We can't escape sin on our own, so Jesus came to earth to rescue us. He became human Himself and died for our sins so we could be free.""Oh," said Rosetta. "Right.""And now that we've been freed by Jesus, we can help point others to the freedom they can have in Him too," Mom said. "But unlike Harriet Tubman, we don't ever have to worry about being enslaved again. Once Jesus frees us from sin, we're free forever.""But pointing others to Jesus isn't quite like what Harriet Tubman did, is it?" Rosetta asked. "It's not as scary and dangerous as going to a place where you could be captured and enslaved.""Well, it's not against the law to tell people about Jesus where we live, so it's probably less dangerous than in other places in the world. But it can still be scary. That's why we need to trust God to give us the strength and courage we need to boldly tell others about Jesus." – Jean A. Burns