“In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one;” Ephesians 6:16
Recently I was studying the Apostle Paul’s description of spiritual armor in Ephesians chapter six. I wanted to know more about the “darts” of verse 16. I found an example of an ancient Roman dart in a museum. The longer I looked at it, the more it reminded me of a “lawn dart” from my childhood. (“Lawn darts” are now illegal in the United States, although you can still buy semi-automatic weapons and own a flame-thrower in most states.) It’s almost the exact same size and shape!
Isn’t it amazing that most of us survived into adulthood from the 50’s and 60’s? I remember when it was standard operating procedure to load all the kids and the dog into the back of the station wagon for a long family trip cross country. No seat-belts, headrests or padded dashboards required. What were they thinking?
Now we have laws and regulations, consumer protection bureaus and product safety commissions to protect us but there is a far greater danger and no one seems to care. We pay attention to protecting our bodies but not our souls.
When we were children, we had our dads and our moms to watch over us and they did as they best knew how. They might have warned us and scolded us but ultimately, our safety depended on our obedience.
The same is true today spiritually. God – our heavenly Father – disciplines us (Hebrews 12:7) but our safety ultimately depends on our obedience.
Hey! Does anyone want to play lawn darts?