Ephesians 6:11 “ Put on the whole armor of God,
that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”
You may think this is a story about Basil the cat, it's not. It's not even a cat story, and the cat in the picture is not Basil, he's Quasimodo. He will be a good story for another day. But, today the story is about basil, the stuff you put in spaghetti sauce and on pizza. And no, it's not a recipe blog either.
This story is about mosquitoes, that's right, bugs. We have plenty of bugs in Bolivia, and have even slept with them too. A few years ago we brought bugs into our house in a new mattress, and had to fumigate the house to kill them. After they bit us to pieces, we finally found them when we flipped the mattress. Hundreds of them, not bedbugs, but tiny bugs that would have eventually devoured us. That was a bedtime horror story.
This bedtime story is about mosquitoes. We are now in our rainy season, and they are everywhere. When we go out the door at night, we must quickly open and close the door with the lights out. That is not easy for senior citizens who always try to avoid a dangerous fall. So we bundle up as if we were in Alaska (even though it is 90 degrees), not forgetting to put dryer sheets in our pockets as we heard to do to keep the pests at a distance. Then we sneak out into the night to do whatever it is we have to do. Thank the Lord we have inside bathrooms; there were times we didn't in our early years of missionary work. God is good, we enjoy indoor plumbing in our golden years. By the way, the only golden things we have so far in these years are two Golden Retrievers who are so active they are making our golden years not golden, but exhausting. They are not the ideal pet for the over fifty crowd; I'm not even sure our grandkids could keep up with their pace.
Back to mosquitoes, hold on, I am about to give you a lesson on "how to beat the bugs", but not literally. We tried that, beating them, and I almost had another broken nose. There were hands flying through the air and newspapers batting in every direction. The mosquitoes must have thought we were dancing in our pajamas. They must have been amused; I am sure you would have been.
After trying everything we knew to do, we retired to bed under the covers, trying not to suffocate, but the buzzing continued. When out of the blue, or pitch black, I remembered a remedy, anything was worth a try. Basil, I remembered reading an article that said the fragrance of basil is so powerful mosquitoes won't come near it.
Off we go to the kitchen, find the large container of basil, and now what? We opened the top and put it right between our heads, quietly waiting in the dark for the attack again. Nothing, no buzzing, and we fell asleep. Every night since our "dancing with the mosquitoes" episode, we have been sleeping peacefully with basil tucked between the headboard and mattress, right between our heads.
Now wouldn't it be great if we had something like basil to ward off the devil when he buzzes around and won't let us alone? Oh, wait, we do. Basil keeps mosquitoes at a distance, and the Word of God keeps the devil at a distance. Just like we opened the container of basil and saw it work, we can open the Word of God and see it work.
God has given us all the tools we need to serve Him, we just need to use what is right before us, His Word. So get out the basil to stand off the mosquitoes, and put on your armor to stand against the devil. |