On Eagle's Wings

The day is December 7. The tradition in Guatemala is to purchase a paper mache image of a "devil", and together with family and friends, you "Burn The Devil" in the evening. All over town, people were burning the devil - shooting off fireworks (an extremely common practice in Guatemala), symbolizing their freedom from his involvement in their life.

We had the privilege of being there during this event, and it was a blast. The people we were staying with were evangelical Christians, so they did not participate in purchasing the paper "devil", but they did enjoy cleaning their house of the papers that they held on to throughout the year. The children brought out their school work (their school year just finished), magazines were brought out, old bills and excess papers from the family office were brought out to burn.

The gentleman we were staying with started saying stuff like, "Burn the swimsuit models that make us feel fat" and then he would put a picture from the magazine in the fire. The kids started yelling, "Burn my science homework", "Burn my social studies homework". It was a blast.

Anyway, it was a neat symbol to remind us that the devil is powerless in our life unless we allow him to remain there. He, and his companions, desire nothing less than to destroy us, the image bearers of God, and make us ineffective for Christ. Take some time daily to "Burn the Devil" our of your life. He is powerless because Christ is victorious.

Let us try to live in this truth!