Describe a Circle

Today is Halloween.  My kids are a little too old for trick-or-treat, so we decided to visit a haunted house for our Halloween entertainment instead.  It just so happens my niece is a member of her high school drama team, and her fellow thespians decided to stage a haunted house as a fundraiser for their school.  We thought it would be a great place to take the kids for a fun night out.

However, our plans were thwarted when my OTHER niece, a sassy, don't-mess-with-me ten-year-old, informed us the spookhouse might be a little TOO scary for our daughter.  She had visited the haunted house the night before, and based on her own experiences, deemed it too scary for Ellyn. 

By this time, we had made costumes, reserved our tickets, and generated a LOT of excitement in our household.  It's hard to come up with something more tempting than the notion of a garbage bag full of candy.  What to do?

My younger niece suggested we go forward with our plans, but build a human wall of protection around our daughter.  With mom on one side, dad on the other, brother & cousin in front and Aunt Allison bringing up the rear, she thought we could protect Ellyn with enough love and encouragement to steer her through the spookhouse with minimal trauma.

It worked; in fact, it worked so well, she wanted to visit the haunted house a second time.  Truth be told, the haunted house wasn't as scary as we expected.  But the strategy made me realize how perfectly God protects us from evil.

Job 26:10 says,  "By Him, a circle is marked out on the face of the waters, to the limits of the light and the dark."  In other words, God draws a circle around us, making it very clear that we will remain in the lighted inner circle if we trust in Him, while evil remains outside in the darkness.

I don't see anything wrong with surrounding each other with a wall of safety and love.  The darkness may spill over from time to time, and our light may be dimmed by the vicissitudes of life.  But if the boundaries are distinct and unmovable, the darkness can never overtake the light.

And if a werewolf happens to jump out from nowhere with a buzz saw in his paws, just draw the circle in tighter and scream a little louder.  And if you pick up a few chocolate bars along the way, chow down while you can.