In a recent heart wrenching tragedy covered on the local and national news reports, a two year old child was swept away from his mother’s grasp in a flash flood. This event took place, not in the backcountry of the Colorado mountains, but in the greater city of Denver, on a downtown bike path, and on what started out as a sunny spring day.
As reports stated, the grandfather called to warn his daughter of the impending dangers of the storm and the possibility of flooding. The daughter continued on her walk and sought shelter from the storm under a nearby bridge.
A fire department official stated, “The mother put the toddler in his stroller to protect him from hail, but torrential rain pushed the stream over its banks. The flood knocked the woman down and tore the stroller, with the boy inside, from her hands…”
It would be inappropriate to second guess and theorize what the young mother should or shouldn’t have done in those circumstances. In that instant, she tried to safeguard her child as best she could, but the circumstances around her quickly got beyond her ability to control them.
For the most part, we all have “sunny and clear skies” in our spiritual walk. Nothing should stop us from growing closer to God on a daily basis through prayer and study. There are always enough hours in the day to devote some time to God.
But when our adversary strikes us, it’s never with our foreknowledge and according to our schedule. His attacks, much like a surging and flooding river, can quickly overcome us and draw us down into his waters. And when we are caught up in those currents, tragedy usually follows. Peter tells us in 1 Peter 5:8: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”
We can AND MUST anticipate Satan’s attacks. This preparation is accomplished by rooting our knowledge in the voices of God’s prophets and the examples they left for us in God’s Word, the Bible. If we do, our spiritual house will be much like the example of which Christ told us in Luke 6:48: “He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock.”
