Cries of the Coyotes

I was raised up in the country. When I was a boy I could stand out in my back yard and not see a single light. It was pitch black. If I stood in our front yard I could barely see the lights of three homes. No one had "security lights" back then. It was just plain 'ol dark outside. I remember walking out at night in the middle of the hay field behind our house and staring up at the stars. The darkness seemed to go on forever. On a clear night the stars were so clear you'd think you could reach out and touch them.

Out in the middle of that field on a starry night it was peace and quiet. You wouldn't hear a sound except for an occasional dog barking and....sometimes late at night, the crying of coyotes. I was talking to a friend of mine this week. He and his wife were camping recently down in south Alabama in a very remote wooded area. It was like they were in the middle of nowhere. They got the camper set up and were settling in for the night when they began to hear the coyotes. He said it sounded as if there were at least a hundred. My friend said he told his wife he'd be back in a minute, "I've got to see how many coyotes there are out there." He said he grabbed his pistol and headed out in the direction of the sound of the coyotes. He walked a few hundred yards from the camper and the sound was almost deafening. He said he felt like he was surrounded by coyotes. He said, "I felt like they were on top of me." As he walked carefully toward the sound he topped a small rise and there they were. Not a hundred. Not fifty or sixty. There were two. Imagine that.

Sometimes we feel may feel like we are surrounded by the enemy. Like the devil is roaming about seeking to devour "us"... Just remember when you feel like the world is against you, like you're surrounded by a hundred coyotes, chances are there are only two. Keep your eyes on Jesus....don't focus on the two who are against you...focus on the ONE who is for you.