The village was no longer a peaceful place filled with carefree inhabitants. Each night a villain of a giant came barging through the main street; taunting, jeering, pulling up lamp posts, snapping fences and eating whatever he might fancy on the day. Anything to get rid of his rage!
People and animals quickly realised that to avoid his wrath they should hide or play dead. Worse still, when he might arrive could not be predicted and so a place that was once filled with laughter, games, feasting and peaceful rest became a silent, grey, locked up prison filled with terrified, hiding people.
One merciful day, after years of living in helpless bondage, an unusual rain began to fall. It was not natural rain that fills up rivers and dams and soaks into thirsty, dry land. This was something divine. Golden drops shimmered as they floated down from a turquoise sky. Doors unlocked, curtains opened, someone began to laugh from the depths of their belly and children skipped down the main street singing and shaking their handmade instruments. All this before anyone even noticed the giant lying fallen in a nearby field, put to eternal sleep by the very same downpour that had woken up and set free a people so in need of a rescue.
When I give the children a writing exercise, I like to do it too – to prove that it is possible and also to show that I wouldn’t ask anything of them that I am not willing to do myself. Last week the instructions were to write something half a page that would make their readers either laugh, cry, hold their breaths or cheer. Not really having any good thoughts or direction for my story, I sat down and started writing about a cruel woman but that didn’t really go anywhere and so I crossed that all out. My next thought was to write about a giant, and as I began to describe what he was doing, I felt desperate and could figure no way out of the predicament my own pen was creating. Sometimes – and this was one of those occasions – I have nothing preplanned to say and yet the words flow and surprise even me. Call it prophetic writing or led of the Spirit, I am not sure, but I know something:
God has His ways of dealing with giants – all that is huge, ugly, terrifying, powerful and likes darkness best will come to an end when golden rain falls. He is a merciful God who will not let the wicked prosper indefinitely. His ways are unusual and simple, profound and beautiful. He is for you. He loves peace, feasting, singing and dancing. Laughter and freedom are signs that His people are awake and that the enemy has lost all power.
He will come to us like the rain, like the spring showers that water the land (Hosea 6 v 3)
The fear of the Lord prolongs life, but the years of the wicked will be short (Proverbs 10 v 27)
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