A father’s love

Once there was a man who had a son he loved very much. The man worked as a bridge master for the railroad. His son loved to watch the trains and the people who traveled on them. These people are lonely, angry, selfish, hurting, and addicted. Then a tragic mistake leads to a terrible choice to allow everyone on the train to die or allow his son to be crushed by the bridge.

Such is the synopsis of the heart-breaking and incredible story from the short film movie “MOST” (Czech for the ‘The Bridge’) a beautiful Oscar-nominated movie and winner of many prestigious film festivals.

The amazing thing about that film is that it is based on a true story of a man by the name of John Griffith, who lived in Oklahoma in 1929. He had lost all he had in the stock market crash. He moved to Mississippi where he took a job as a bridge operator for a railroad trestle.

In 1937 he was involved in a horrible accident. One day his 8-year-old son, Greg, spent the day with him at work. The bridge was over a river and whenever a ship came John had to open the bridge to allow the ships to pass.

On that day the boy was with his father a ship was coming so John opened up the draw bridge. After a moment he realized his son wasn’t in the river fishing anymore and as he looked around, to his horror, John saw his son climbing around on the gears of the draw bridge.

He hurried outside to rescue his son but just then he heard a fast-approaching passenger train, the Memphis Express, filled with 400 people. He yelled to his son, but the noise of the now clearing ship and the oncoming train made it impossible for the boy to hear him.

All of a sudden John Griffith realized his horrible dilemma. If he took the time to rescue his son the train would crash killing all aboard, but if he closed the bridge, the boy will be crushed in the gears. John would sacrifice his son. He made the horrible decision, pulled the lever, and closed the bridge. It is said, as the train went by he could see the faces of the passengers, some reading, some even waving, all of them unaware of the sacrifice that had just been made for them.

The beautiful story portrays the greatest love of a human father who sacrificed his only son to save passengers on a train all unknown to him. The story was captivating, thought-provoking, inspiring, and bold that it can move you to your core.

 It portrays very similar to the amazing sacrifice made by God the Father when He sent His son to die for us while we were on our journey headed for eternal destruction. John 3:16 summarizes the cornerstone of Christian belief that God sacrificed his son for the salvation of humanity.