Once upon a time, a child was born into the Tearful City. It was a terrible place, full of tears and hunger and pain and all sorts of misery, hence its name. At first, the child was too little to understand what it all meant, why he and his parents lived there and why they struggled so to survive. He simply learned what they taught him to do, how to get food and find shelter and appease the gangs of murderous thugs that ruled over the city. He learned what he must to do to obey them so that they wouldn't hurt him or his family.

As he grew older, he began to ask why things were so and why they had to be so. His parents told him their parents had told them that long ago this city had been a happy place, fully of joy and peace and plenty of good things. Then one day the leader of a gang had arrived and tricked the people living there to join his gang. He convinced them that their leader was ruling unjustly over them and withholding some of the good things that he reserved for himself unfairly, and that they should seize those things for themselves even though he had a specific law against it. They would be his equal and rule over their city for themselves then.

The lie worked. The people rebelled against the law and took the ruler's things for themselves. Too late, they realized that they had done wrong and had let the gang leader seize control of them for himself. Their ruler, who was really a kind and just leader who had taken good care of them, agreed to their choice as he had warned them he would if they ever did it and left them in the hands of the gang leader who quickly brought in many more deceitful gang members to rule over the individual neighborhoods.

The gangs quickly took over the city and turned it into a place of sorrow and want, seizing what they wanted for themselves and treating the people like slaves. They forced the people to raise their children to believe that the main gang leader was their true ruler and to serve him as he commanded. They tried to erase any memory of the former ruler and his kind, just ways.

The city quickly sank into lawlessness as the gang's ways were ingrained into the children's minds. No longer would they live like the former ruler had commanded, to love him and each other and live with justice and mercy towards all. Now they would live like the gang leader who ruled over them, learning to seize what they wanted by cunning or brutality over people who didn't know how to or weren't strong enough to stand up to them.

In time, the memory of the former ruler faded as each new generation grew up in the city being taught what the gangs wanted them to learn. A few people still clung to the memory of their former ruler, telling the story of his goodness towards them and sighing for his return to save them from their misery. Some children learned the story and told it to the next generation, but most looked at the poverty and brutality around them and couldn't believe that it had ever been any different from that. Some, so hardened by their terrible life that they had turned to joining the gang to escape it as much as it could be done on their own, scoffed at the stories as lies and did their best to force the people to stop telling them and to live in the city as they were told to by the gangs.

Still, the stories were repeated and some of the people wondered who this ruler was and if it was ever possible that he might come back to stop all of this. They told that the ruler's son had come once and offered to bring the old rule back if the people would agree to it, but the city's leaders had refused and tried to kill him. Still, because not everyone had made that choice, the son kept offering to adopt children into his family while he was preparing to destroy the gang leader's rule once and for all.

He was going to let those who wanted the gang leader as their ruler have their wish, but those who wanted to live with him could be forgiven for anything they had done while living in Tearful City and become his children, too. All they had to do was to agree to be adopted, and he would give them everything they needed. He would re-parent them to teach them how to live with his family in love and joy and peace as it had been before the gangs took over, that is, he would raise them as his children as they should have been raised in the first place.

The child heard the stories and yearned to see the son, to ask him to adopt him, too. He told the people who told him the stories that that was what he wanted, and they smiled and assured him that the son knew and that his adoption was sure. However, for now, he would have to stay here and spread the story to help others escape from the gangs. They would start teaching him what the ruler wanted him to know to live in his family, and when the son arrived to take them all to their new homes, he would finish the rest.

So the child believed and tried to live like the son wanted him to live. It quickly became apparent to the local gang that this child had rebelled against their rule and was trying to hasten the return of the son who would free their slaves and take back everything they had stolen from them. They tried to force the child to renounce the son and return to their ways. They held him up before the community as a fool deceived by lies and punished him severely again and again. But the child had grown to love the son so much that he wouldn't give up his hope of adoption into the ruler's family.

This enraged the gang members even more, and they decided to hunt down and destroy anyone who believed the stories. They weren't about to give up the city and its slaves without a fight, and even when evidence that the son was about to return and overthrow them became plainly apparent, they still fought to say that the stories were lies and that they were the rightful rulers of the city and its people. They began seizing the followers of the son and punishing them severely, terrifying the people with their cruelty. Still, the stories persisted and spread all the faster as the people clung to the hope that these brutal gangs would someday be destroyed and their loving former ruler would have his son rule over them again.

What makes this story all the more tragic is that it is the actual history of the human race in the Tearful City, the Earth we live on. Long ago, our loving Heavenly Father God had ruled over this world as part of His kingdom and had placed our first ancestors, Adam and Eve, here to be its rulers under Him in His kingdom. There was a rebellion among other beings in His kingdom, led by the lying, murderous thief we now call Satan. He deceived Adam and Eve into thinking that God was unfairly keeping a particular tree and its fruit from them, and that if they took it against God's clear order to leave it alone, they would be the true rulers of the planet. They did it, and discovered too late that they had just become the slaves of Satan, who took over rule of this world with his followers enforcing his will here.

God did send His Son Jesus Christ to testify of His good will towards anyone who would agree to be adopted into His family. Satan and his gangs fought against Him, and even tried to kill Him on the Cross. But Jesus loves us as much as His Father does, and He was willing to die on the Cross and be raised from the dead to testify that God really would pardon anything we did as part of Satan's kingdom if we would just agree to be adopted into His family. That's what Christians mean when they talk about being saved and being born again.

You don't have to do anything but believe that Jesus died to save you from all of this and agree to be adopted into God's family. You don't have to pay the penalty for any lawlessness (called sin) you committed while in Satan's kingdom before you come to Jesus. He has taken care of all of that. Any re-parenting to teach you how God's family lives is done after you are saved (that's what Christians mean by the word sanctification). You don't need to learn how to act like one of God's children to be saved. You simply come to Him just as you are for adoption. He has taken care of anything that had to be done to adopt you, and He'll lovingly raise you as His child after that.

If you would like to leave this Tearful City and join God's family, He is eager to receive you. Please pray this prayer of salvation:

Dear God, I want to be part of Your family. I don't want to be part of Satan's kingdom anymore and I'm sorry for my sins and I ask You to forgive them. Jesus Christ paid the price for my sins to redeem me. Please adopt me into Your heavenly family. In Jesus' Name, Amen.