"do not be afraid."

a awoke with a jolt this morning.  our bedroom wall is about 7 feet from the trunk of an enormous oak tree and its large branches are overhead. often on windy nights and mornings, the acorns dropping on the roof provide cadence to other sounds of the house and road beside. this morning, something loud landed on the roof (a fallen branch? or any random thud that God intentioned to wake me with).  i am confident that this awakening was not accidental because immediately, in my mind's eye, i had a glimpse of something i read yesterday and the imagery and His voice with it...and it was early and i've learned in recent years to rest in early morning sleep rather than running into the day...but i just couldn't allow myself to drift back because of the picture in my head.

it was JESUS.  and He was saying and rereading His Words in my mind and thought from revelation 1:17:  "do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and i have the keys of death and of hades."  

when i walked into the living room to sit down with bible and computer, i had my phone in hand so that i could silence the alarm when it would ring and just glanced at it to check the time. the screen that popped up was from the app store. random. i know i was the last person with my phone last night and am confident this was not my last activity. and i don't remember the words on the screen but only images of death and then another... a game with a sort of evolving dragon. NOT a game that would have normally been listed under the "kid learning" search, the last in my search field.

i am posed this morning and listening in quiet. He is confronting my fear.

i have known from my youth of the spiritual battles raging around me.  i have known first peter 5:8 ...with keen awareness that satan has every intention of...without relent...going after me and my husband and my home and my children. and i have thought that everything that is dear and precious is game to him.  and in this day and in this culture, i perceive his craft in introducing vices and evil when we're not even paying attention. when our guard is down.  and when we are not even curious or  looking for it.

so this image of Jesus as victorious is blowing my mind this morning.  and it has these years. but today it is vivid and real and significant to allay fear.  He has the keys of death and of hades!  He confronted death...and is "alive forevermore"!!!!!!!!!!!!   and He speaks in revelation (words in red)...to john and to us and it says, He placed His right hand on john...with the comfort of "do not be afraid."  He spoke, "do not be afraid."  and the rest is comfort.  the words of revelation: comfort.  "do not be afraid" (rev. 1:17).

i imagine this morning as my house is waking up (little peeps waking and needing)...as i walk with them and live life with them and try to figure out how to parent them and to keep them from evil...i think...that Jesus has confronted death and evil and hell and that He has already won.  and He is concerned about my fear.  and in the opening chapter of revelation, He speaks comfort and asserts His victory over death and in His declaration, the declaration of WHO HE IS...the "first and the last, and the living One...." i know He is mine. my Protector and the Protector of my children.  and i hear Him as He spoke to john and to me in this... "do not be afraid."