I showed a picture of this train bench yesterday afternoon while speaking at the Bible Study in Kuna. Right away a couple of people said, “We used to have benches like that here.”
I grew up with these old train benches in our house. From ever since I can remember they have been at the dining room table. When my dad heard that we were in Kuna, he said, “Oh, yeah, I bought those two train benches from their church about 25 years ago.”
I must say they are about the sturdiest benches I have ever seen. I am not sure how old they are but they have to be at least 80 years old. They are made out of solid oak with a cast iron frame. Over the years I think all my dad has done is to replace a few screws. Believe me, they have probably seen more abuse over the past 25 years at my parents house than they did in the previous 60-70 years. We used to make it a practice of hurdling over them to sit down, that way no one had to slide out to let you in.
The coolest part about these benches was that the back slide from one side to the other. It didn’t matter which way the train was going because you could always have the bench facing forward. Our lives are a lot like this bench, you either go forward or you go backward, no swivel option. You’re, either getting closer to God or you’re getting farther away, you’re either on the path to eternal life, or your not.
Mat 7:13 Go in through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in through it.
Mat 7:14 Because narrow is the gate and constricted is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
