A scream startled me one day as I sat in a little cabin in the north woods. The scream came from somewhere very close, and sounded so like a frightened child. Looking about outside to see where it had come from I found a beautiful big, white snow-shoe rabbit lying just a few feet from the cabin. He was dead, but still warm, and at first I could see nothing about him that had caused his death.
Then I noticed two tiny red spots just behind one ear, and I knew who the murderer had been—it was the evil little weasel, called Kagax, by the natives. Kagax is truly a murderer, for he does not kill just for food, but to satisfy his lust for killing. If we were able to follow him upon one night’s hunt we would find him leaving a trail of death behind him, here a squirrel, there a nest of wood mice, a brooding mother bird and each egg broken—not to eat, but just to destroy. Again we might find him wriggled down amongst the four or five still warm bodies of young rabbits he had killed by biting through the spine, tasting only a drop or two of the blood, while he waited for the unsuspecting mother Hare to return. A partridge, another rabbit, a bull frog, a nest of young woodpeckers—and so on, through the night Kagax would destroy, his tiny eyes glowing red with his thirst for blood.
This wicked little destroyer reminds me of a greater destroyer—one whose sole purpose is to destroy the souls of men and women, boys and girls. "Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5:88Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: (1 Peter 5:8)).
But a reckoning day comes for many a little Kagax. Heavy with the blood he has eaten, his feet no longer glide noiselessly. They might rustle the leaves, or break a twig. And should a sharp sound reach the ears of the great horned owl, in an instant a huge shadow would sweep down and hover over the sound.
Crouching beneath a fir tip for shelter, Kagax’ red eyes would meet two fierce yellow eyes. As two sets of strong curved claws drop from the shadow, with a snarl Kagax leaps upward. His teeth meet; but no blood follows the bite, only a flutter of soft brown feathers. Then one set of sharp claws grip his head; another set meet deep in his back. Kagax is jerked swiftly into the air, and his evil doing is ended forever.
What a joy it is that we can tell you the good news that there is One greater than the evil destroyer, Satan, too! “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil" (1 John 3:88He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. (1 John 3:8)).
We are even more helpless than the rabbit, or the frightened creatures Kagax destroyed. But we too have a Deliverer from above—One under Whose wings we may safely trust! Receive Him as your Savior!