Beautiful Mushrooms

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Beautiful Mushrooms

 2 Corinthians 11:14 – “. . . for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.”

 

What a great time we guys had a couple weeks ago as we followed John-Keith’s lead on our hiking and camping trip in West Virginia. John-Keith, Luke, Nathan, and I left the comforts of home on Thursday afternoon and traveled the 6-hour trip to Dolly Sods Wilderness. After arriving at the park at dusk, we donned all 60-75 pounds of each of our full packs and sought our first campsite. Thanks, John-Keith, for finding us something, even in the dark. This old guy was ready for some shut-eye!
The next couple days were full of great times. We hiked, we ate, we swam, we ate, we played, we ate, we . . . well, we took a lot of food, but it was certainly a great time. During Friday’s 9-10 miles of hiking, we saw beautiful scenery, from the vegetation along the trail, to the rock formations on the hills, to the creek that followed our path. One of the things that we continued to notice throughout our trek was the occasional beautiful mushroom that dotted the sides of the trail. A couple of times I stopped and looked closely at these marvels of nature. They looked so colorful. Some were orange and yellow and some were purple. To one without proper understanding and with a love of mushrooms, it would have been tempting to pick one and plop it into his mouth. How enticing each one could be!
Of course, we know that old saying, “when in doubt, don’t,” especially in the wilderness. Berries and mushrooms that look so pretty and inviting ca n be deadly if consumed. That reminded me of how Satan often works today. TheScriptures tell us that the devil’s beauty is without equal. The caricatures of a red figure with horns, a pointy tail, and goatee lure us into a false conception of the evil one. In fact, he is a beautiful creature still today. Isaiah calls him “star of the morning, son of the dawn.”
Today’s verse is a strong warning to all of us. Even though Satan is a beautiful creature, he is dedicated to darkness – his goal is to fight against the light of God (John tells us in I John 1:5, “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.”). The devil will try to tempt us with things that look very beautiful. He will distract us with things that appear incredibly tasty. But the end result is that these things will only keep us from enjoying the true light of God and the great peace that comes from following Him alone.
Man, those mushrooms were beautiful. I am thankful, though, that I have been taught not to eat them. They may look tempting, but I know that, like Satan, they are disguised to entice, and actually will destroy the one who gives in to their beauty.

Love,

Dad

1 Comment

  1. Julie@comehaveapeace on July 24, 2014 at 4:30 PM

    Love hearing from Bart here! As you can imagine, our family has found many of our greatest lessons while hiking 🙂

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Hi, I'm Sandy! 

I write inspirational letters based on the Bible that share words of hope, encouragement, truth, and healing to my children and anyone else who longs for a mama's touch.

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