His Victory

He wanted her dead.

In his feeble, limited mind it would be one less in the Kingdom of Forever.

And that’s what he lived for: to snare and snatch from the shadows. He was keen to see her every mistake, her every misstep and oh, she had many! He delighted in that and it was his joy to remind her. He took note of how frequently she was alone: most often. This would be one of his easier victories. He drooled at the thought. These “lone rangers” were easy to ensnare. He whispered into the very space and time and the lasting lingering of their greatest, most humiliating moments.

His deep, ugly voice was familiar, hypnotizing, and commanding. “Don’t you see what everyone sees? I told you before and I’ll tell you again (oh how I’ll tell you again, he mused). You’re a waste of human skin. No one wants you. No one cares. Not even one. Now, forget this place. There’s a better place for people like you. You’ll see. I’ll help you get there.

Stop thinking…stop resisting the truth.

I have you and I’ll guide you,” he cajoled.

“Now do as I say,” his voice more ugly and edgy.

Robotic-like, she followed his precise, yet snarly commands. He did seem to have her. He spoke to the depths of her being. He seemed to know her in a way no one else did and in a twisted way, there was a sense of connection, even intimacy. To be known and understood–isn’t that what she always wanted? How did he know so much about the many details of her life’s most embarrassing struggles: all that was done to her and worse, all she had done.

He reminded her again, how no one cared, not one. Things would be better soon and oh how she needed that. She couldn’t take it anymore.

She set everything in place with amazing detail. Nothing was left undone. There was an ease about it all. She moved like a thoughtless zombie. He told her to add one more thing to her hand-scribbled note, a postscript:

“Just throw my body in the trash.”

He gave that instruction in his last shaming-second. It was a nice touch after all, for his desirous, full-frontal impact on his victim’s families and friends. Why not take the piercing, bonus shot? It energized him to think about how–with just those few words–he could crush them too!

With one loud bang and a flash, she was gone: instantaneously.

He watched, gloated, reveled and rejoiced:

He scored a victory over the King of the Kingdom of Forever!

At that very moment, he heard the King’s Words from above:

…Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons (your ilk), neither the present nor the future, nor any powers (your puny, puny powers) neither height nor depth, nor anything in all creation (any non-living or living thing!), will be able to separate us (yes her, my Beloved) from the love of God (I am He) that is in (My own son) Jesus Christ…

How did he miss it?!

She was one!

She was won.

In a moment, just a single moment, somewhere along her pathetic-seeming life, she’d called upon his enemy—the Holy One. How could he have missed that moment? The Words came at him again:

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Even this one.

It was not his win after all. The sarcastic smile swiped from his terrifying face, he shuddered at the thought of being hurled into the Lake of Burning Sulphur at the end of time, by the maker of Heaven and Earth. But it was not yet his time, so he slithered back into the shadows to seek and destroy his next pursuit. The voice from above spoke again:

I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish;

No one will snatch them out of my hand (not even you, Satan).

My Father who has given them to me, is greater than all (greater than you);

No one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.

I and the Father are one.

And then, another voice:

The lamb will overcome…He is Lord of lords and King of kings—and with Him will be His called, chosen, and faithful followers…

The dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be His people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.

He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things will pass away…

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