18th June 2022

Sometimes when I feel a bit daring, I pull the book “Extreme Encounters” off the shelf. It’s full of the testimonies of those who have suffered a near death experience…. I don’t mean one of those operating theatre stories….. but someone who was mauled by piranhas, and someone who fell foul to an avalanche, and …. my favourite, someone who was caught in the back yard by a python, and was about to be swallowed, when the snake suddenly saw the man’s dog, and decided that would be an easier feed.

Yes, the stuff of nightmares. And so to read it, I need to be in the daring mood. But then there’s another Book which tells of more extreme adventures. Like not just being near death, but actually being dead, but then being raised to life at the end of the world. And in such a scenario, death itself being swallowed by life! Says the Book: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

I wonder if the devil reads. And I wonder if he has nightmares. For this, certainly, would be a nightmare scenario for him. His life’s work, gone in a flash. All that he hoped to achieve through the centuries, swallowed up in a moment of glorious and healing light. Just maybe, the shivers I feel at the thought of being swallowed alive by a python, are those that he feels at the thought of death being swallowed up by Christ’s victory. I’d like to think so.

DM 18^th June 2022