Where Is Your Sting???

Mine is on my back.  Left side, just above my waist.

A red welt about two inches across.  Swollen.  Itching like crazy.  Twenty-four hours after that tiny bee delivered his oversized PUNCH.

I felt him before I saw him.  Something alive crawling on my back, underneath my t-shirt.  Making my skin crawl.

I put my hand back to flick aside the intruder and WHAM!  He injected his poison then fell at my feet.  He didn’t get a second chance.

My initial curiosity — was it a bee or a yellow jacket? — gave way immediately to Emergency First Aid.  It was as if the poison exploded into flame inside my body!

Thirty minutes later, after freezing his handiwork with ice, I was left “merely” marked and itching.  After a bit of research, I determined the culprit was a honey bee.

It wasn’t until the next day that I experienced the sting of Your bigger Lesson, Lord.

“Where, O death, is your victory?  Where, O death, is your sting?  The sting of death is sin.”  (1 Corinthians 15:55-56)

And I wondered…

What difference would it make if every sin we so gladly embraced delivered a real sting not unlike the sting of that honey bee?

What if the actual poison inherent in The Moment of Sin displayed itself more truthfully in actual and acute discomfort that couldn’t possibly escape our notice?

What if the adverse effect of sin’s sting was as physically obvious 24 and 48 hours later?  A swollen, red, unsightly welt that wasn’t pleasurable at all… but, instead, was (and remained) annoyingly painful?

What if, as a result, we avoided every Close Encounter with Sin as intentionally as we avoid every Stinger with Wings?

What if… ???

Scratching…

… and pondering…

Abba’s Girl

“Thanks be to God!  He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm.  Let nothing move you.”  (1 Corinthians 15:57-58)

 

 

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