Squirrels, Snakes, And The Thief

When Joel and I were first married he took me squirrel hunting.  Joel grew up with a gun in his hand, and hunting was a major part of his and his family's life (until he joined the military).  I had already experienced deer and duck hunting with him, but squirrels?  One fall day we went to the woods behind his Aunt and Uncle's farm, looking for squirrels.  We came to an area where the sun was shining brightly, and as we walked through, it was like the whole meadow was moving.  It was filled with garter snakes sunning themselves.  When we moved through the grass, they moved, When we stopped they would stop moving and lift their heads.  Joel had never seen anything like it before and I, well I was terrified!  It was the creepiest thing ever.  Ugh.  We did go home with squirrel and skinned and cooked it.  It tasted like skinny dry chicken.  It was my first and our last experience in squirrel hunting.  We never hunted, cooked, or ate squirrel again.  Seriously, a good decision on our part!

Today I was thinking about that warm fall day so many years ago and all those snakes.  They were pretty invisible until they raised their heads.  Of course it shifted my mind right to the big ol' snake that is so sneaky and slimy in our lives.  Satan.  He is invisible to the naked eye, but when he raises his head?  Yeah.....he lets us know he is there.  He is really relentless in pursuing God's children and in conquering the earth.

The thing is, he has already lost the war against God and His children.  We already have the victory.
The thief and his buddies work hard to "kill, steal, and destroy" but even in death the victory is ours in Christ Jesus!

I have learned that when the enemy comes against us, it is a good thing to take a position of standing firm.  "I see you (Satan) and I refuse to partner with you.  I send you to the foot of the cross in Jesus name".  He comes against us in sickness, disease, our thoughts, our feelings, and more.  Keeping our focus on Jesus and His goodness and putting on that full armor of God the Ephesians talks about helps us remember the battles are already over.  And we win!

I love looking back and seeing how God works all things out for good in our lives.  If I had been able to look ahead those first months of marriage and see all that would occur in the 50 years ahead I probably would have said, "Jesus take me Home now!".  Yet God has walked through it all with us.  And that ol' snake may look scary at times, but we are empowered by Holy Spirit to walk in victory.