Stamp! Stamp! Stamp! The great elephants charged furiously across the broken statues and pottery, grinding them into the dust. Watching villagers breathed a sigh of relief. Their small corner of Cambodia would be free from accidents for a year, thanks to their annual elephant drive to “stamp” the evil spirits that might threaten them.
Across the ocean the Iroquois medicine men twice a year donned frightful masks and went into each lodge scattering ashes on the floor, leaping and groaning and shaking their rattles. That made each lodge safe to live in; all the evil spirits had been chased out.
A huge mask, hanging from the highest gable end of a New Guinea house, is supposed to protect all who live there as well as any others who may enter. Trouble would be frowned away by that ferocious face.
It’s just universal, that longing for insurance against all trouble. We would gladly avoid any sickness or sorrow, trial or grief, but it cannot be. God does not promise even the Christian a trouble-free life, but He does promise to make “a way to escape” in the midst of the trial. Ah, that sounds more hopeful! But there is more: “that [you] may be able to bear it.”
Not what we wanted to hear at all! But it is a great and glorious promise just the same, for He promises His help, His comfort, His encouragement through any circumstance. The Christian can always be sure that he is loved and cared for and that he can claim for his own that wonderful promise: “The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deuteronomy 33:2727The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms: and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee; and shall say, Destroy them. (Deuteronomy 33:27)). It is wonderful to be a Christian! Are you?