The devil knocked on my door last night and asked if he could come in—”you see we have a lot to talk about, he said, and I think it’s time I came clean.”
I let him come in—I detected no harm, I was charmed—and alarm bells were silenced.
“I must confess I have brought you undone and such a cinch it was. I’m an expert you see, and I knew all your weakness, your triggers, and you fell for it every time. Just a whisper here or whatever was near you and you were in like Flinn. Oh, it’s so easy to make you sin!”
As he wrinkled in glee, he proclaimed it to me that “the rest was a symphony when your shame is my pleasant reward”.
“I see you loathing in self-regret and misery like a fox caught in a trap; the hunter was me and I enjoyed my slim pickings for I never really cared after all.
“You see you humans are easy; I did it to Eve, then she did it to Adam and so the story goes on and on. You weren’t the first I brought undone, and you won’t be the last. None of you are immune. Oh Eve was so blind and Adam such a fool and since then I’ve perfected the art. You made me your prince and gave me the world until God took matters into His own hands. I don’t have long to work but I’ll keep going while I can for one day I will have to depart.
“But until then I’ll distract you and cause you to fail again and again and again. It’s quite simple you see—distractions and pain they were all caused by me. I pride myself as being a pretty good salesman you see. I was high up in heaven, yet I cast doubt on the Father and proudly wouldn’t repent and that was the end of glory for me. Your life is like mine—while you’re looking away, I give you crumbs from the king’s table, and you relish them with glee like it’s more than your wildest dreams. God can offer you more, but Him you ignore and that’s fine by me. You bicker like seagulls when I throw you the scraps; turning your back on the five courses you need.
“You will blame everyone else for the life that you failed, perhaps even God. I really don’t care, you’ll never blame me. I’m immune to the fear of a world full of sickness and pain. Yet it’s always been me, I’m the father of chaos. It’s in our blood you and me, we are tarred with the same brush; let’s admit it and be free.”
Just then I heard a knock—much firmer than the first—and I watched the devil cringe in fear; he begged me stay and turn the stranger away, for he knew how this meeting would end.
I opened the door to the Friend I’d ignored, and His nail-scarred hands led the way.
“Don’t listen to him, it’s your choice don’t give in. I have opened the way for a new life and a home without sin. Take a walk with me now, I have all that you need. Leave the baggage inside this old house. I have made you a mansion, a home and a life without self-pity, shame and reproach. I saw you before the world had begun. I love you and when I died you were on My mind, My child. You have always and always will be.”
My choice was made—I won’t disclose—and the offer goes out to you. Christ has offered the same, you don’t need to be ashamed; He loves us all the same.
You were on His mind the day that He died, and He rose again to proclaim—”You are loved my child with all your faults and your shame. It’s OK, we can work through the pain, let’s just take a walk and see where it leads—it’s your pace, it’s your choice all the same.”
Jason Drury pastors in the south-west of Western Australia, with his wife Janet and their two youngest children.
