I had an experience last night when we took our little boy Trick or Treating that was a scary and yet spirit-enriching reminder to me , about how God always protects us . Our son ended up trick-or-treating by himself this year , instead of with a neighborhood friend...and he was down and disappointed when we started off as he wanted his buddy with him. So guess who ended up being his buddy...yep, me.
We went from door to door throughout our neighborhood , it was a very dark and humid Halloween night here in the Deep South. It was 78 degrees ! We meandered through yards and driveways with my flashlight in tow, lots of candy and compliments on his scary Phantom costume cheered him up. My husband was usually out on the street with our looney-tooney black lab waiting for us after each house.
Our Phantom w/ his red glowing eyes
Well , our last street we went down before home was the one with a family that loves to go all out for Halloween, and I mean ALL-OUT. We stood at the end of the driveway looking at a yard full of at least 60 or more tombstones, spiders in all the trees, skeletons as well. Halloween lights, more monsters and ghouls lifesize, posed around the yard. At the front porch were three ghouls, I believe older college age kids waiting for us.
I looked at our little Phantom, and said, " Let's go. "
We started to walk up the driveway, and about halfway there, I had this weird feeling...turned abruptly around and came face to face with a BIG monster , a man about 6'3 or 6'4 ins .tall with a huge hooded cape , arms outstretched, and one of those horrible rubber masks that had fake blood, scars, all kinds of scary yuckiness abounding.
No screaming from me though, he was about 1 foot from me , and yes I was scared..BUT...the protective she-tiger Mom came out in me and NO ONE was going to scare my kid.
So, I gathered all 5'6 ins. of me and reached towards this big monster, pulled on the bottom of his rubber-gory chin...and said...
" If you think you're going to scare him, you have to go through ME FIRST. "
This big guy was now about 6 ins. from my face, stood there a minute...and let me tell you, honestly I was scared..I do not like scary anything... and this big guy was dressed up like scary EVERYTHING.
But in a few seconds, he backs off, I did too, but before I did, I patted his gory mask and told him he looked horrible...which he liked. He then went back to sit in the bushes , on a concrete wall to wait to scare someone else.
Now what I did not know, as my husband was watching this from the street, was that our little boy behind me had simultaneously raised his 3 foot plastic sword and was standing about 3 feet behind me while I was talking, and had it up in the air while this was going on.
Phantom and his weapon
When I asked my son later, was he protecting me ? He says, " No way, I was protecting ME !" I laughed , his dad fussed at him to learn to protect his Mom too. But to me the big lesson was, that is how God is with us. He is the one who stands between us and our ' monsters' whatever they may be in our lives , and He protects us, if we let Him . God always has my back. But our son also taught me something, him holding that sword up to that ' monster' was what we are supposed to do with the sword of the Spirit ( Ephesians 6:17 " ..And take the helmet of salvation , and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.." ). We have a part in fighting the monsters of our lives, God expects us to use what His Word ( The Bible ) teaches us about how to fight our addictions, weaknesses , problems, trails, temptations...our sins.
He enables us...but He ALWAYS has our backs.
That fact comforts me and I hope you too.
Many blessings to you,
Gina
" For He Himself said, " I will never leave you nor forsake you. " So we may boldly say: " The LORD is my helper ; I will not fear. What can man do to me ?" Hebrews 13:5-6
