Red Flagged

As we took our morning walk around our 10-acre pasture, my husband and I kept a keen eye to the ground in search of Black Walnut saplings that had sprung to life, taking their place among the grass and weeds.  It was nothing short of miraculous that even after cutting the grass so many times, some of the new saplings seemed to erupt from their seeds overnight. 

We walked slowly, taking in the early morning beauty of the countryside, a bundle of red flags in hand that we would use to mark the saplings to save them from utter destruction at the careless hands of a teenager on a riding mower.  We would concentrate our efforts in the most obvious places, near other Black Walnut trees that had produced a bumper crop of walnuts last year that now littered the ground.  Occasionally though we would find a sapling in some obscure place; apparently the work of some rodent, probably a squirrel. 

As we marked the trees, I was suddenly aware of the illustration that was playing out before me.  I felt the Spirit of God speaking to me, reminding me that I, too, had been ‘red flagged’ to save me from utter destruction.  I am marked with the blood of Christ, and when Satan comes along with his lawn mower, he must go around me!

We are saplings in the kingdom of God, much like the pine and the myrtle mentioned in Isaiah 55:12 and 13, which will not be destroyed.  God has marked us and though the weeds (thorn bushes and briers) will be destroyed, we will be an everlasting sign.

Unlike the saplings in our pasture, that are unable to call out to us and beg for a red flag to be placed beside them, we have the opportunity to cry out to God, and he will flag us, and we will be saved.  It’s our choice though.  God knows where we are and that we’re about to be mowed over, but he will not mark us unless we ask him to.  In Deuteronomy 31: 19 (just in case we’re too ignorant to see the benefits ourselves) God holds up his holy cue card that says “CHOOSE LIFE!”  

You can be sure that Satan is cutting grass today.  John 10:10 says that “The thief (Satan) comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (NIV)  Be sure that you’re flagged, before it’s too late.