by Caroline Adobah
The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
Romans 16:20
Towards the end of my twelve hour urgent care shift, my husband, Mel, texted, “Nora just took about six steps.” You parents know that feeling, “She can walk!” I was sad I wasn’t there for those first steps but grateful to hear about my 11-month-old baby’s healthy development. My job as a PA (in the urgent care during the demands of winter) is stressful, but the news lightened the rest of my shift. It made me so happy because this is the beginning of great growth. I hope one day Nora and I can run a marathon together, I can teach her to ice skate, and we hike some of the AT. The first step in these adventures is being able to take steps. As I was driving home, I was crying with joy that this child God gave us is walking and I was thinking about the joy our Heavenly Father feels towards us as we grow and develop.
When we start walking, we can start crushing Satan under our feet, as Paul wrote in the end of his letter to the Roman church. John writes multiple times in his letters about “walking in the truth.” He says in his last letter that he has no greater delight than to hear that “my children are walking in the truth.” (3 John 1:4) John also defines the Christian life in terms of a walk:
And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it.
2 John 1:6
The joy we feel watching our kids develop can be matched by an even greater delight: watching them (and other disciples God gives to you) walking in the truth, growing in grace, running after Jesus. Isn’t the inverse also true? There is no greater sorrow than to see our kids (and our brothers and sisters in the faith) walking in lies? I just read John’s account of Christ’s life – where Satan enters Judas at the Last Supper – a culmination of Judas’ lie-walking alongside Jesus’ ministry. Right after that supper, the Apostle Mark records that Jesus says his heart is “sorrowful to the point of death.” Walking in truth will bring sorrow, but Satan, the father of lies, can be crushed by simply walking over him with the truth of God’s Word.
In our generation, we have the truth in the midst of “new” lies about marriage, gender, and even life itself. We get to show our kids, in 2023, how we walk in the joy and peace that comes from possessing the Spirit of Truth – the Spirit who deposited within us the mind of Christ until we become one with Jesus. This mind of truth makes us fearless and focused. What would it look like in our lives today, if our greatest joy was others’ journeys of truth-walking? What horrible substitutes are we buying into that we think will bring us joy? How slow are we to confront children who are walking in lies? My baby walking means lots more messes, more costs, more dangers that I have to protect her from, but it also means more excitement. Growing pains are real in life – even in spiritual life. Paul talks about the maturing that we long for in our kids (and should long for in our church family):
… until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Ephesians 4:13
Crushing Snakes
by Crowder
We’re not afraid
A promise of God can never be torn away
Walking on hands of angels, crushing snakes
Safe under the shadow of his wings
Our fortress and our strength
Our fortress
We’re taking back our freedom
Our battle has been won
We have been liberated
Back from the dead we’ve come
Do you see him? King of Heaven
Champion of all creation
Eyes of fire, voice of thunder
Tearing through the sky in wonder
Dressed in light, we see him coming
On a horse that’s white like lightning
Do you see him?