The White Train: Explained

The first thing you should know about this story is that it's largely inspired by the song Piano Man, by Billy Joel.  So that's essentially where the setting and premise of the story comes from. I wrote this because after hearing the song, I stumbled upon a quote that really resonated with me. "Everyone is fighting a battle you know nothing about." I decided to illustrate that picture. What does it look like when everyone is fighting a battle that you know nothing about?

When people are hurting they generally go to a safe place. That's what the The Darkest Pit represents. People who are at their lowest, coping with the pain. The first man, with the trenchcoat and shady appearance, was someone who was real with his pain, but hid in the shadows. The second man, the one among friends, was someone who lived in the light, but concealed his pain. And finally, the piano man represented compassion. Our character noticed that the characteristics of the piano player didn't quite match up with his music. He had compassion on the piano man and helped with his problems. 

In the next part, the character comes running out of the pub, shocked at his realization, and takes shelter at the train station. The conductor, of course, is Jesus. The train station is life from a timeline perspective. This is why I got specific when the man in the story asked Jesus to see his baggage; because the platforms and compartments represented specific times in this man's life. However, the numbers of the boarding platform relate to a specific verse:

2 Corinthans 5:17
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has past away, the new has come!"

And the same goes for the ticket:

Matthew 11:28-30
”Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

When the man received the ticket, he received an invitation to follow Jesus. When he boarded that train, he committed his life to following Him. And the seat that the man took represented what we think we deserve when we come to Christ vs. what we really get. Not the average seat, but the best. Jesus only offers us His best when we come to him. And when the train departed: I ended with a simple thought:

"I knew that wherever the train went, it would take me somewhere better. Because for once in my life, Someone was guiding me there."

Finally, the destination, meant walking a blessed life with God. The moral here is that faith doesn't make things easy, it makes things possible. Life with Jesus doesn't automatically make things easy. In fact, it makes some things harder. But the promise is that none of our pain is ever in vain.