Glass Panes and Dragon Battles

I walked into the living room to see what all the commotion was.  Timothy and James were boldly wielding their foam swords towards the same unseen apparition.  Occasionally one of the boys would dive, fall or climb on the sofa to throw himself more intensely into the fighting.

“What are you two doing?” I inquired.

“We’re protecting Harley!” Timothy explained in his brave “man” voice.

I looked at the empty space before them were they swung and stabbed their swords.  “From what?”

James exclaimed, “From the dragon who wants to eat him!”

Harley was sitting on the back of the sofa intently gazing out the window.  From the brisk twitches of his tail, I knew he was longing to pounce on the birds in the bushes just beyond his glass boundary.  Harley had no idea such a fierce battle for his  life was in full swing behind him.

I used to tell my 5th grade students when I taught at RCLS that God can be found in every good thing.  Even in the chaos of my ordinary day, I found God in a dragon battle.  

So often I am like Harley, gazing out the window and longing to catch a bird.  I want things I don’t have or wish circumstances were different for me or for loved ones.  I question why God places a pane of glass in my path to keep me “stuck” where I am, when something better is just “outside”.  

What Harley doesn’t understand is that without his front claws, he can’t catch those birds anyhow.  Even worse, if he were allowed to wander outside, he would be defenseless against our neighbor’s antagonistic tom cat, who I have more than once mistaken for a mountain lion.  I don’t always keep in mind that the Lord lays out my path and gives me the faith to follow his lead.  God sometimes puts up “glass panes”, and those perimeters are there for a reason: for my good and for his glory.

That day on the couch, Harley was missing the beautiful display of love behind him.  My boys were, after all, laying down their lives for their beloved cat.  Oh, okay, I’m being dramatic.  Their dragon was fictional.  Even so, I thought about how God protects me from numerous unseen dangers.  How many times has he spared me grief and pain?  How many times has he mercifully spared my earthly life as I futilely stare out the window?  I’ll never know.  Many of the battles he fights on my behalf will remain unseen by earthly eyes.

Yet, the greatest battle fought on my behalf, on behalf of all believers, won the war against sin and death and dealt the defeating blow that renders the devil as powerless as my boys’ invisible dragon.  This battle was fought with a pure and sacrificial love that poured out the blood of Christ for our redemption.  Thanks to Jesus, there are no glass panes, no perimeters, that can separate us from our loving God.

It is my prayer that we never turn our backs on Christ’s display of lifesaving love.  May it be the focus that gives us peace and prompts us to praise our Savior for the gift of salvation and even for the “glass panes” that keep us where we need to be.