Banners Unfurled
And ye shall know the
truth,
and the truth shall
make you free.
— John 8:32
It was like bombs going off, a thousand firecrackers right
in front of her face. The wife had just recently found out about her husband's longstanding
affairs, lies and deceit. He told her he didn't love her any more and wanted a
divorce.
BOOM!
CRACK!
KAPOW! POW! POW!
He had treated her so badly she felt
as though he had cut her open from stem to stern and eviscerated her. She had
tried to make things work, apologized, gotten counseling, tried to see things
his way, but it was all for naught. He was gone from her - cold and distant,
his mind made up, and getting angrier and angrier that she was still trying to
save their marriage.
The emotional abuse got so bad that,
one Friday afternoon when their children were at school, she decided to drink
Drano to put herself out of her misery. . .
. . . except . . .
. . . she waited for just a few
minutes to listen to her favorite preacher on Christian radio, one last time.
While she teetered on the brink of
suicide, devastated and exhausted, she listened to his powerful, uplifting sermon.
It seemed aimed specifically at her:
"You don't have to give up. You
don't have to give in . . . because HE who is in you is greater than he
who is in the world." (1 John 4:4)
She remembered that.
She believed it.
She let it save her life. She didn't
drink the Drano.
In various ways, including a
frightening dream, she knew the Lord was trying to tell her that if she stuck
with her husband, the consequences would be deadly for herself and her loved
ones.
She had to let him leave her and endure
a difficult, unfair divorce.
Soon thereafter, he ordered her to
meet him at a restaurant, but refused to say why. She asked friends to pray
during the whole meeting, and for the first time in a long time, she was able
to sit fearlessly, peacefully, attentively and quietly across from him.
He went into a diatribe, listing all
the things that were "wrong" with her, repeatedly claiming that she had
contributed NOTHING to their marriage, had been NO support to him, and NO help
for his career. He threatened to make sure she never saw a penny in the
divorce, bragging that no judge would side with her.
As his rage went on and on, though, something
amazing happened:
She started seeing medieval banners
passing right across her husband's chest, like flags unfurling.
They looked like cream-colored satin
with embroidered, blood-red, script letters from the Middle Ages. They were fancy,
eye-catching, festive and beautiful. But that was deceptive, because here's
what they said:
Pride
Arrogance
Greed
She realized that those banners represented
the very real deception that draws people into Satan's snare. Whatever looks
good and feels good can hook you in and get you so entangled you're trapped . .
. imprisoned . . . in bondage.
That's what had happened to him. God
was just giving her a glimpse of the spiritual warfare going on, sight unseen.
As soon as the last banner unfurled,
she looked up, and saw Satan standing behind her husband with his arms wrapped possessively
and protectively around his shoulders, snarling for her ears only, "He's
MINE!"
Then poof! The vision was gone. But
she knew then that it was a battle she could not win.
She saw at last how he was in a
prison of his own making, while she was the one who was safe, secure . . . and
free, in God's protective and loving embrace.
She knew then that she had to let go
and get out of God's way, even though she was scared, so that God could deal
with him. And, she hoped, one day, God would set him free of the evil in which
he was embroiled, too.
Those weren't banners you'd ever
want to salute . . . but she thanked God for letting her see them. †
