The Big Bad Wolf

‘And he huffed, and he puffed, and he blew the house down!’

My granddaughter’s favourite story at the moment involves the Big Bad Wolf and his vicious attacks on the Three Little Pigs. There is a fascination with the ferocity of the evil wolf, a flirting with the fear that his attack raises in her.

I’m sitting at a table in the wee hours, listening to the wild wind howl round our home. I can feel secure inside the granite walls, protected from the piercing cold air. Yet I hear that wind as it moans through the cracks of ill-fitting windows, and I sense the cold penetrating despite the granite.

I can feel safe in my faith. I can presume that I am safe from the onslaught of the enemy. But I know that he prowls round like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. He is the real Big Bad Wolf, seeking always to destroy relationships, disrupt families, devour our faith and leave us desolate.

He huffs doubt into someone’s mind; he puffs rejection in someone’s heart; he seeks to bring down all that would glorify and celebrate our Saviour. 

We are safe in Jesus, but we are still vulnerable to attack, and far too frequently our complacency renders us powerless when an onslaught comes. Put on the armour, Paul says. Know your enemy, Peter writes. Don’t let the house come down because the fire of faith has burned low. 

The first little pig’s house of straw came down in the wind, and he sought shelter in his brother’s house. That little pig’s house of sticks likewise fell prey to the Big Bad Wolf’s powerful, offensive breath. The brothers streaked to the brick house of the prudent brother, who had spent time carefully constructing a house that could resist the wolf’s huffs and his puffs. 

So when that Big Bad Wolf finally, in fury, slid down the chimney seeking to reach the heart of the home, he was defeated by a hot fire and boiling water. Our enemy’s tactics aren’t any more sophisticated. He, too, seeks to invade my space by sliding down the chimney of my heart, but I am stoking the fires so that he may be consumed in the hot fires of my faith, built up with the Word of God, the presence of Jesus, and the power of the Holy Spirit.

That enemy may huff, and he may puff, but he can’t blow such a house down.