He will not let your foot be moved. He Who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He Who keeps Israel will not slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper. The Lord is your shade on your right hand. (Verses 3-5)
"Holy Father, keep them in Your name, which You have given Me, that they may be one, even as We are one. While I was with them, I kept them in Your name, which You have given Me. I have guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled...I do not ask that You take them out of the world, but that You keep them from the evil one." Jesus. John 17
Vanessa and I went to her storage unit early in the afternoon on a hot summer day. There were some things she wanted to leave there and some things she wanted to take with her, so we moved boxes and furniture around to find her erstwhile treasures and park others. It had been a while since she'd opened the unit, giving time for all manner of spiders and bugs to arrange their lives in the dark. To spin their web homes in quiet joy or crawl safely into crevices they felt safe from human interruption. Then suddenly, light! And the minions of the microcosm scurried to the perceived safety of a box or two. One of which wound up in my car, unnoticed until we were ready to drive away. As Vanessa reached her hand to close the hatchback, a black widow, perceiving its mistake, was hurrying out of a box, carrying an egg sac on its back, in an effort to flee its captivity. My daughter screamed. "Mom, it's a huge spider!"
Those of us with children know that thing that kicks in when we think our kids are in danger. Crazy adrenaline that tells our brains, "Protect!" The little black spider with her shiny, slick legs didn't have a chance against my mother-mode. Before I could actually think, I reached out my hand, grabbed it, threw it onto the pavement and stomped it dead. A black widow. Not smart, maybe. But the threat was now mashed into the blacktop. My daughter was safe. I, much bigger than the spider, vanquished it in a moment. (Don't try this at home.)
At all times, we have a Father Who is watching over us. Keeping us. The Hebrew word is shamar: guard, watch over, attend carefully. Never sleeping. Never caught off-guard by the evil one's plans. The webs he'd trap us in. The venom he'd kill us with. When Satan hides in the bushes waiting to ambush us and push us down, it is our Father Who keeps us from falling and hitting our heads on the rocks in the ravine below. In His Passover prayer with His disciples on the night of His arrest, Jesus told His Father, "Look! I've kept them. I've done what You told me to, and they haven't fallen prey to the evil one." It feels to me like Jesus is proud that He did that for His disciples. Like, whew! I did it, Father! And it was work. Is work. The task of being vigilant over our hearts and lives. Standing so close by that His shadow is over our right fighting hand. The breath of the Father on our necks. Never far away in the battles that we wage.
I was only able to swat a spider and squash it for the sake of my daughter's well-being. I didn't die for her, though I would. As Easter approaches, the thought of Jesus saving us from evil with His own life, taking the poison on Himself so that we can avoid the consequences of its coursing through our lives, destroying us, melts me. Jesus saw the destruction moving toward us and threw Himself in front of it so I could go free. Kept me from evil by taking the venom into Himself, once and for all. Saved me forever from the penalty of my own dancing with the spiders and from the heinous purposes Satan has when he tries to blindside us in our innocence. The Father Himself is now mine. I'm bought and paid for, redeemed out of the web this world had woven around me, by the Son purchasing me with His blood from the father of lies. Adopted into a household whose patriarch doesn't ever fall asleep on me. I am guarded, well cared for, precious.
When people acknowledge Jesus as only a good teacher, a kind and compassionate healer of hearts, a prophet, misunderstood and wrongly crucified, I cringe. No! Jesus is God! And His heart for us sent Jesus to the earth He spoke into being because He saw our struggle with the black widow! Was called into action just as I was, out of love for His people! "No evil is going to take My children!" The lion's heart that came rushing down from the throne on which He sat to look evil in the face and stare it down. The early sacrifices hadn't been enough. Jesus came to do hand-to-hand combat with the enemy of our souls. Smash evil's ugly face into the dust forever! Victorious for me, dying in the process! But the sting of death was taken from the venom sac of Satan when our Savior rose from the grave, conquering the very last stronghold our enemy had. Our Jesus grabbed death by the throat and cast it down, never to be victorious over us again!
I can't guarantee no more spiders for Vanessa, but Jesus can guarantee to me that evil has been conquered in my life, and He will keep me until that day when I will stand in front of Him and Jesus will confess my name before the Father and His angels (Revelation 3). Jesus will declare that I belong to Him and once again proclaim to the Father, "I have kept her." May I stay close.
"Holy Father, keep them in Your name, which You have given Me, that they may be one, even as We are one. While I was with them, I kept them in Your name, which You have given Me. I have guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled...I do not ask that You take them out of the world, but that You keep them from the evil one." Jesus. John 17
Vanessa and I went to her storage unit early in the afternoon on a hot summer day. There were some things she wanted to leave there and some things she wanted to take with her, so we moved boxes and furniture around to find her erstwhile treasures and park others. It had been a while since she'd opened the unit, giving time for all manner of spiders and bugs to arrange their lives in the dark. To spin their web homes in quiet joy or crawl safely into crevices they felt safe from human interruption. Then suddenly, light! And the minions of the microcosm scurried to the perceived safety of a box or two. One of which wound up in my car, unnoticed until we were ready to drive away. As Vanessa reached her hand to close the hatchback, a black widow, perceiving its mistake, was hurrying out of a box, carrying an egg sac on its back, in an effort to flee its captivity. My daughter screamed. "Mom, it's a huge spider!"
Those of us with children know that thing that kicks in when we think our kids are in danger. Crazy adrenaline that tells our brains, "Protect!" The little black spider with her shiny, slick legs didn't have a chance against my mother-mode. Before I could actually think, I reached out my hand, grabbed it, threw it onto the pavement and stomped it dead. A black widow. Not smart, maybe. But the threat was now mashed into the blacktop. My daughter was safe. I, much bigger than the spider, vanquished it in a moment. (Don't try this at home.)
At all times, we have a Father Who is watching over us. Keeping us. The Hebrew word is shamar: guard, watch over, attend carefully. Never sleeping. Never caught off-guard by the evil one's plans. The webs he'd trap us in. The venom he'd kill us with. When Satan hides in the bushes waiting to ambush us and push us down, it is our Father Who keeps us from falling and hitting our heads on the rocks in the ravine below. In His Passover prayer with His disciples on the night of His arrest, Jesus told His Father, "Look! I've kept them. I've done what You told me to, and they haven't fallen prey to the evil one." It feels to me like Jesus is proud that He did that for His disciples. Like, whew! I did it, Father! And it was work. Is work. The task of being vigilant over our hearts and lives. Standing so close by that His shadow is over our right fighting hand. The breath of the Father on our necks. Never far away in the battles that we wage.
I was only able to swat a spider and squash it for the sake of my daughter's well-being. I didn't die for her, though I would. As Easter approaches, the thought of Jesus saving us from evil with His own life, taking the poison on Himself so that we can avoid the consequences of its coursing through our lives, destroying us, melts me. Jesus saw the destruction moving toward us and threw Himself in front of it so I could go free. Kept me from evil by taking the venom into Himself, once and for all. Saved me forever from the penalty of my own dancing with the spiders and from the heinous purposes Satan has when he tries to blindside us in our innocence. The Father Himself is now mine. I'm bought and paid for, redeemed out of the web this world had woven around me, by the Son purchasing me with His blood from the father of lies. Adopted into a household whose patriarch doesn't ever fall asleep on me. I am guarded, well cared for, precious.
When people acknowledge Jesus as only a good teacher, a kind and compassionate healer of hearts, a prophet, misunderstood and wrongly crucified, I cringe. No! Jesus is God! And His heart for us sent Jesus to the earth He spoke into being because He saw our struggle with the black widow! Was called into action just as I was, out of love for His people! "No evil is going to take My children!" The lion's heart that came rushing down from the throne on which He sat to look evil in the face and stare it down. The early sacrifices hadn't been enough. Jesus came to do hand-to-hand combat with the enemy of our souls. Smash evil's ugly face into the dust forever! Victorious for me, dying in the process! But the sting of death was taken from the venom sac of Satan when our Savior rose from the grave, conquering the very last stronghold our enemy had. Our Jesus grabbed death by the throat and cast it down, never to be victorious over us again!
I can't guarantee no more spiders for Vanessa, but Jesus can guarantee to me that evil has been conquered in my life, and He will keep me until that day when I will stand in front of Him and Jesus will confess my name before the Father and His angels (Revelation 3). Jesus will declare that I belong to Him and once again proclaim to the Father, "I have kept her." May I stay close.
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