Image by Dimitris Vetsikas from Pixabay
Grayson Ludlow, after Mrs. Trent at last reclaimed her exercise ball from the children, had something on his mind.
“Hello, Mama Melissa – my grandma is cooking, so I hope you know,” the six-year-old said. “Is Jesus coming back someday to get us on a bus?”
Mrs. Trent blinked.
“What, Grayson?”
“So, I learned a new word today, omnibus – O-M-N-I-B-U-S – and Andrew said that it means kind of the same thing as God being omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient – it means a bus that all can ride. It's the all-bus. So, I was wondering.”
Eight-year-old Gracie Trent thought she was helping out …
“No, Grayson, it's a train – my ancestors wrote a song about it a long time ago.”
“De gospel train is a comin'
I hear it just at hand
It's loosin' all its steamin' brakes and rollin' through the land!
Get on board, little children, get on board, little children!
Get on board, little children, there's room for many a more!”
Eleven-year-old Velma Trent chimed in with the second verse of the old Negro Spiritual while Milton her nine-year-old brother added a beat underneath it:
“The fare is cheap and all can go
The rich and poor are there.
No second class aboard this train – no difference in the fare!
Get on board, little children, get on board, little children!
Get on board, little children, there's room for many a more!”
“Also,” Gracie said, “the fare is affordable for everybody because that other song says Jesus paid it all!”
Grayson considered this, and then smiled.
“I get it. A train is a lot bigger than a bus or even a plane, so of course the Lord would use that to make sure that everybody who wants to go with Him can! Your ancestors are smart!”
“Yeah, and, yours are too because they wrote 'Jesus Paid It All' – they just don't have the beat like that, Grayson” Milton said.
“But see, this is why God is using the gospel train so everybody from everywhere that wants to go can be on it, and then we're going to have the all of the best music and the best beats and the best singing and the best musicians, and so we'll just be praising the Lord and riding the train all through eternity!” Gracie said.
“Yep, that's right,” ten-year-old Andrew said, “because I was reading in Papa's Bible that we've got all the ages to come, to the praise of the glory of God's grace.”
“So we're just going to be riding the train down through all the ages to come, and praising the Lord, and the sightseeing in Heaven has got to be amazing, along with all the stops to get out and look around!” Gracie said.
“Yep,” Grayson said. “Well, that's what I wanted to know! Thanks!”
He and Andrew ran off, and Mrs. Trent's children ran off, and she was left there holding the ball and laughing.
“Well, Lord, they don't fully understand, but then again, they do understand better than a lot of other people do that there is room for people of all different races and backgrounds in Your kingdom. We have to work out a few details with them, but, they are on the right train and the right track!”