Some kids aren't even sure what their school bus driver looks like. They're still asleep when he picks them up in the morning. But every child who's ridden in that yellow "limo" knows the "chauffeurs" come in all kinds of flavors.
You've got the kind bus driver who greets everyone by name. The grumpy ones who seem to want to be somewhere else. The wisecrackers. The happy road warriors.
And then there was Chuck Poland. Who really loved his Midland City, Alabama passengers. To death.
Because when a man with a gun boarded his bus and demanded to take some children with him, Chuck Poland stopped him. One student reported that the intruder kept saying, "I'll kill y'all." No children died, and all but one got out safely. Chuck Poland didn't. He died there with four bullets bringing him down.
There was talk at the Super Bowl of "heroes" in the game. But the real hero this week was a man who drove a school bus.
His daughter said that he always considered his young passengers as "his kids." Yes, he did. He put himself between them and the danger.
I can't watch that story without two things happening. My heart is moved. And I think about Jesus. So did people at his funeral this weekend. One fellow bus driver said, "What Chuck did was the same thing Jesus Christ did. He laid down his life to defend those schoolchildren."
Those words are right out of the Bible. "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us" (1 John 4:16).
What gets me is those words "laid down." Jesus actually said, "I lay down My life...No one takes it from Me" (John 10:17-18). How could anyone take the life of the all-powerful Son of God? He made the tree He died on. He created the men who nailed Him there. He let them beat His back bloody. He let them jam the thorns into His scalp. He let them drive spikes through His hands and feet.
But more than any Hollywood portrayal of His crucifixion could ever show, He endured a soul torment no one ever has. Because He had poured out on Him all the hell of all the sin of all mankind. And from His shredded soul, He cried out, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?"
And some of those sins He died to pay for were mine. Nobody ever loved me - ever could love me - like He does. The burden of my sin was forever lifted the day I said, "Jesus, I'm Yours."
It was said of that Alabama bus driver, "You died knowing you kept everyone safe."
That's the word I feel. Safe. Because Jesus stood between me and the "bullets" of the judgment for my sin.
Jesus died. I'm safe.
I'm speechless.
It's no wonder that the only thing God will want to know when we stand before Him is, "What did you do with My Son?" If you'd like to receive the pardon, the life He died to give you, you can find out how at our website, YoursForLife.net. I pray you will.