Kids have one of two dispositions to bugs: love 'em or hate 'em. My youngest, Kenzie, falls in the second camp. She despises bugs of all shapes, sizes, genus and species. It doesn't matter if it's a little black beetle, a beautiful monarch butterfly or a ladybug -- Kenzie hates bugs.
A while back I was sitting in the kitchen doing some sermon prep and I heard a terrifying scream come from the direction of her bedroom. I jumped up from the chair and ran toward her room only to find it empty. Again, I heard a blood-curdling cry coming from behind me: the bathroom. Upon entering the bathroom I found Kenzie, seized with fear, backed up in a corner, trembling with terror. She was frozen.
As I approached and saw the ashen look on her face locked into a gaze toward the corner of the bathroom, I saw the object of her dread: a spider. Not just any spider ... a black, tiny, smaller than a pea, eight-legged monster. This is the kind of spider that is so ferocious that if you weren't looking very closely you'd think it was lint or a piece of dirt. To an 8-year-old girl, this was like stepping into gladiatorial combat with a lion.
Because I want my children to face their fears, and help them get over them, I looked at the spider, and then I looked at Kenzie and said, "This? This is why you screamed? This is why you are hiding in the corner? This little tiny spider?"
"Yes!" she exclaimed through a locked jaw.
"You have no reason to fear this spider. Just step on it," I said.
Kenzie rarely wears shoes or socks. She loves to be barefoot -- even in January. Stepping on this spider was not an option for that reason alone. She wouldn't have stepped on it anyway. As soon as I said it, she tried to cower even further into the corner -- paralyzed with fear.
I leveled with her, "I'll tell you what. I have my house shoes on, so you just put your foot on mine and we'll smash it together. Does that sound like a good idea?" Strangely, she agreed and she put her foot on mine as we stepped on the intruder and dispatched it with ease.
Romans 16:20a declares: "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet." There are a lot of times that we find ourselves cowering in fear, afraid to move because Satan tricks us into thinking he has a strong hold on us. This just isn't the case -- and it's so comforting to know that God helps us understand that Satan is a defeated enemy and should give us no cause to fear.
We are told that God will crush Satan under our feet. Similar to the way that Kenzie stepped on my foot as I stepped on that spider, so too Satan is crushed -- under His feet (as foreshadowed in Genesis 3:15), but we get to enjoy that victory, too. Christ is the ultimate victor. He has defeated sin, death and hell through His death and resurrection.
Listen to "Death Was Arrested" by North Point Worship.
Jeremy DeGroot is Lead Pastor at FBC Siloam Springs, a husband, daddy, and musician. You can contact him via email at [email protected] or reach out on Facebook.