There's a Bible Story that fortifies me whenever I feel as if my individuality or inspiration is being threatened. Revelation 12 portrays a woman who is about to give birth, when a huge red dragon with seven heads and ten horns arrives to eat up her child. But the child is "caught up unto God," and the woman runs to a safe place in the wilderness, where she is cared for, for three and a half years.
The story continues with the description of a great war in heaven against the dragon. The angel Michael and his angels engage in the battle, and the dragon is kicked out of heaven. The only problem is that although the dragon's power to oppose God and His angels is neutralized forever, the dragon still plagues the woman. The woman, though, is given the wings of an eagle in order to return to her safe place in the wilderness, but the dragon sends forth a flood to drown her there. The Bible account goes on to reassure us that the earth swallows up the flood. But the dragon is further enraged, and continues to make war on the woman and her children, who are described as those who keep the commandments of God, and those who have the testimony of Jesus Christ. The story ends with the implication that the dragon will continue to undermine successive generations of believers.
How can this story with such an omnious ending leave us with any hope? Well, if we can look at the woman in the story as representing each of us, and see her child as our life purpose, that story can teach us about the resources we have to defend our reason for being. At the times when the attack seems worst, God has given us a safe place in the wilderness. We are fed in that wilderness by God's love. In the middle of battle, we can claim the peace of our union with God. We can trust that the spiritual messages, or "angels" He gives us as our defense, are doing their work of defeating the dragon.
