The Child of Evil

While servants of the prince of darkness present themselves as angels of love and goodness, they grant their victims in part those things the flesh desires to have without cost of life. Souls are thus ensnared in their own selfishness.

“I gave my child all it wanted. I spared nothing. What more could I have done?” laments the parent whose child is now on drugs or in prison or dead.

How ironic that the sure path to destruction is receiving at request all that one could ask for! How ironic that our way to peace and fulfillment is in denial, hardship and deprivation until the final day!

The epitome of selfishness:

“I want,” it declares;

“I want it all,” it demands;

“I want it all now,” it screams.

It loves to be pampered and cuddled.

It has no notion of cost to another,

No care for one’s needs or desires

Other than its own.

When not obliged,

Its world stands still,

Its heart bound in the thing it wants.

A thousand things a day it wants.

“My way!” it cries,

Not for reason’s sake nor truth,

Not for right nor even good,

But for self, and when denied,

It pouts;

Sullen and resentful,

It eats itself

And those around

Unless it gets its way.

The child of evil is ruled

By its passions

And its whims,

By its ignorance

And its needs so perceived.

At every turn it cries

Unless it gets its way;

It clings to itself to live,

Held in the grip of death.

 

But deliverance comes

As an enemy,

In the form of a rod,

The rod of chastening,

of discipline,

of correction.

The one who wields is wise;

He will not spare for the crying.

He knows the cries

Of a child;

He knows he is not

The cause of those cries

But the cure,

Though the child cries

When he cures.

He knows that if he spares,

He destroys.

The destroyer is

The flatterer,

The sympathizer,

The pamperer,

The one who understands

Without understanding,

The one who cares

Without caring,

The one who loves

Without love.

The deliverer

Understands and cares and loves

With the rod of truth.

Blessed is the one

Who is not offended in him

And cursed is the one who is.

 

Lethbridge, Alta., Dec. 1985