The Thief Comes Only To Steal, Kill, and Destroy

Have you ever noticed?

Photo by Bastian Pudill on Unsplash

Racoons destroyed our vineyard last week

My husband was gone. I was putting our new kitten away in our shed for the night, so it’d be safe from predators when I heard a rustling out toward the vines. I knew there were live traps out there and figured something was caught. It was a good feeling, I’ll admit.

However, when my husband checked traps the next day, he found the truth: total destruction. Not only were the traps empty and all the grapes gone off the vines, but also the well-tended vines, themselves, were broken down and ravaged. It was as if 20 ‘coons had partied out there.

The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. (John 10:10, NIV)

They had been so silent, I never guessed. Only a tiny snapping sound, once, was the clue something was out there. Could’ve been a deer, in my imagination that night, but it wasn’t.

We were shocked at first, then wounded with the loss. We’d worked diligently according to pamphlets regarding how to reclaim abandoned vines. Last year, we’d filled half of our small freezer with grapes and had shared with loved ones. This year the freezer will not be crowded at all: We rescued three grapes.

Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible — and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. (Ephesians 5:11–14, NKJV)

Image by Melanie from Pixabay

What did we learn?

Nothing. Nothing new that is. These masters of the dark world are all about stealing, killing, and destroying. Let me give a couple of examples:

• Corn is “crack” for ‘coons. Many people though they may not fully garden will plant a small stand of corn for summer delights at the table. ‘Coons will party in a household stand of sweet corn all night long leaving every cob pulled off, opened, sampled, and discarded, as if they were delirious.
• Chickens are another favorite medium for a ‘coon to show its depravity to the fullest. If you hear your chickens screaming and in agitation, it is likely a ‘coon has infiltrated. They can get through the smallest aperture. A window open two inches is enough room for their flexible skeleton to get through.

‘Coons do not have to enter the henhouse, if there is a dirt floor. They dig a bit, slip their slender fingers through, imitating a fat worm, and grab your little henny by the leg for dinner. Yes, a ‘coon will eat the leg of a live chicken without qualm then leave the victim to bleed out and die.

The ‘coon is an animal without pity

If you bury the poor hen, the ‘coon will dig it up for another meal.

A racoon knows to move silently after dusk to escape detection. It knows it could be chased away, punished, even killed for its actions but sees nothing wrong with them. ‘Coons behave inhumanely because they are not human. In the case of domestication, one might act “human”, but it is an act.

In reality the ‘coon is a true beast.

The lesson

We often notice humans acting in much the same way as the animals around us. We say someone sings like a bird or drinks like a fish or grins like a chimp. We don’t really mean it, but we have these silly phrases we enjoy using.

We sometimes are very much like the animals, in that when we act right, it can be merely an act. I remember telling my children, “Act like a Christian,” and realizing some of them had not given their lives to the Lord yet. So I was maybe unfair or maybe comical. (They were smart as ‘coons, though, and didn’t call me on it. Ha.)

But sad-to-say, we all know full-fledged adults who are only acting. The man who is polite-as-you-please at work but yells at his family is one example: He knows what to do but only does it when he perceives gain in it. Another may be the woman who pleads with teary eyes for prayer for her husband to be saved, but then goes home and whines or yells at him for being too stupid or lazy to go to church.

But here’s one take-away

When we act like the actors we are, we can find our true selves, thanks to the Apostle Paul, in Romans 7:

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. (Romans 7:15, NKJV)

All of Romans 7 can be a true eye-opener, if we read with an open heart. If we can see the true problem — the true enemy — the battle, they say, is half over.

And here’s the second take-away in the ‘coon example: Our lives are the grape vines, and our children are the grapes. When we refuse to fight the enemy, he can enter and destroy more than our peace; he can destroy our lives and steal our children.

Since the entire concept is simple to see when someone outlines it so well, we can find later on in Paul’s letter to the Christians in Rome he tells us what to do about it:

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:24–25, NKJV)

As always, it is all about Jesus. Turn to Him. Ask Him to deliver you and learn the mystery of His peace. ❤

Katharine Trauger is a retired educator and a pastor’s wife, who writes life-saving content for women from a chalet in a deep woods in the Arkansas Outback, at Home’s Cool! and at The Conquering Mom. She is working on a book entitled Yes, It Hurts. But …