Who's afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?

Who’s afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?

‘I’ll huff, and I’ll puff,’ the Wolf threatens, ‘and I’ll blow your house down.’

It’s amazing, the power of a fairy tale villain. Children are right to be frightened by him. He zeroes in on the most vulnerable and attacks with a ferocity which is deadly. His breath is foul and it blows strong, so strong that it can collapse a house which has been built of flimsy materials and stands without foundations anchored in rock.

Our enemy is no fairy tale villain. His breath fans the embers of hurt until they begin to glow with resentment and flare into anger, which becomes a consuming conflagration. A conflagration fuelled by the sadness of disappointed expectations. 

Our enemy is no fairy tale villain. He seeks out our vulnerabilities and delights to find our deepest hurts, and then he begins to blow his foulness into them, nursing the coals that glow with even the smallest sign of life, the coals that can linger deep within.

Our enemy is no fairy tale villain. I have a friend who counsels that we shouldn’t put our expectations in anyone but the Lord, because everyone else will let us down. It’s human nature. It’s when we are affronted by the disappointment of a thwarted expectation in someone that the coals flare into fire, and if left to burn, that fire can consume relationships, can consume us.

Forgiveness is the water for dousing the flames of disappointment and hurt, of anger and resentment . Forgiveness sourced in God. Forgiveness empowered by the Holy Spirit. Forgiveness expressed by Jesus for the centurion, as he pounded the iron nails into his hands and his feet. 

Who’s afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? We all should be, and yet none of us should be. We all should have a healthy respect for his undoubted power and his vile evil intentions. But if our foundations sink into our loving heavenly Father, he will hold us firm when the wild winds of destruction blow from the real big bad wolf. Rather than his foul breath fanning into flame the flickering coals of hurt, it will simply blow them out. 

And then, set free, we can truly dance and sing, ‘Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf? Jesus has dealt with him.’