Real-Life Parables

About a year ago I became aware that God was communicating to me through real-life incidents that had symbolic meaning. I was so excited about this novel concept that I started keeping a log of these incidents and their meanings, hoping to write a book someday.

Then, wouldn't you know it, I was hanging out on the Aslan's Place website and saw that the book has already been written! It's called, If This Were a Dream, What Would It Mean? The author, Murray Dueck, explains how everyday events can have spiritual meaning. The examples he gives, especially of symbolic events involving England's royal family and India's Parliament, are fascinating. Even though it meant my idea was not original, I enjoyed the confirmation the book provided that God does, indeed, communicate through symbolic incidents which I like to call real-life parables.

Here's an example of one of the first ones I noticed.

It was about 2 a.m. and my husband jumped out of bed in alarm. He was certain he had heard someone come in the front door. He called warnings down the stairs. After checking to make sure our children were accounted for, he made his way downstairs, weapon in hand. In my state of grogginess, I refused to acknowledge that there was any real threat. I knew I had locked the front door before going to bed, and anyone coming in that way would have set off the security system. Eventually he came back to bed, confident that no one had entered the house after all. I remember thinking, as I fell back to sleep, that it was a very strange incident, particularly because my husband was so convinced he had heard someone at the front door.

The next night my daughter had a sleep-over birthday party with about eight of her elementary aged girlfriends. They all slept in the living room, and I went to bed long before they did. That's why I was surprised when, at 5:30, which was my usual rising time, I came downstairs to find several of the girls already awake. It seems they hadn't slept much all night. First a couple of them had seen what they thought was a coyote prowling right by the house. Then some of the girls heard the door knob on the front door turn. They thought they may have seen the form of someone on the front step. Although mass hallucinations at 10-year-old girls' slumber parties are probably not unusual, the girls seemed unusually staunch in their beliefs of what they saw. Even when I grilled one-on-one some of the girls who I felt were more reliable, they did not back down on their story or admit that it could have been their imaginations. Even so, I wouldn't have given it too much thought. But the fact that it happened the very next night after my husband's mysterious nocturnal hallucination gave me pause.

After the girls had all been picked up by their parents, I settled into a quiet morning. In fact, it was too quiet. The phone hadn't rung all day. Sure enough, I found out that the phones were not working. My first thought was that a sinister prowler had cut our phone lines like always happens in the movies. But I learned from the phone company that about ten homes in the area were affected. Another odd situation. We had never lost phone service randomly like that before, and we never have since.

On my prayer walk that day, I pondered these events. I thought it could be a picture of spiritual warfare. The devil was trying to gain access to our family, but he was not succeeding. I felt that the Lord was telling me that our boundaries were secure.

Then about 4 p.m. I received a phone call from my bank. A banker advised me that all my bank accounts, including my checking, savings, and credit card accounts needed to be closed. It turns out that someone from Kazakstan had tapped into the bank's computers and had viewed my account. Although he hadn't accessed any funds, the bank expected that his plan would be to return to withdraw money from my account very soon.

So that's what the odd events of the last two nights were about! They were warnings that someone was trying to access our financial accounts. And the telephone outage was to show that it was an electronic attack, so to speak.

But did that mean my original interpretation that I felt God had given me (about the spiritual warfare) wasn't accurate? Actually, I felt both interpretations could co-exist. They weren't contradictory. In fact, the Kazakstan incident was consistent with the front door incidents. The hacker had rattled the door knob and peeked in the window, but hadn't taken anything. The bank had caught the problem in time; our electronic boundaries had held.

That picture of spiritual warfare has been very comforting to me over the past year. I have felt under attack by the enemy at times. And while I can say he hasn't taken anything of true value from me, he has caused a great deal of stress and hassle. Having to close all my accounts and re-open them turned out to be a much bigger job than I had anticipated. I had to set up all my auto drafts again, and some of them became problematic, taking months to actually resolve. So, while the devil hasn't won any true spiritual victory over me, he has probably wasted my time and made me less effective than I could have been without his interference!

I am so glad Jesus is praying for me. According to I John 2:1, Jesus speaks to the Father in my defense. I suppose it is similar to what he said to Simon Peter in Luke 22:31-32: "Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers."

And I'm thankful that God gave me those interesting pictures that helped clarify the spiritual realm for me.