Enraptured to Destruction

She tittered. He smiled. It was painful, and humorous in a sad sort of way. An older woman tittering over the obviously contrived attention she was receiving from a rich, worldly man who had long ago been her young charge. He had waltzed back into his small community, with an agenda. As I watched this scene from PBS’s Masterpiece television airing of The Indian Doctor, I was impressed with the actors’ fine portrayals of longing and deception. Like Eve, she longed for more. Like the snake, though he smiled, he cared not for her but for his own agenda.

I wonder how pathetic we humans must appear to evil forces as we trade out Kingdom blessings for stolen goods from the enemy. The shiny, tantalizing things that, like the next best fishing lure, dangle before us to reel us in. Promises to fill some wanton need, slack our discontent — or that of others — like a gaping whale mouth ready to swallow us whole.

Her dress suit was yellow, the perfect compliment to her reddish blond hair, coiffed just so. She stood waiting at the curb, like a love-sick teenager, for him to take her to a fancy lunch. To woo her unknowingly into his “great new plan,” the con of the town-folk. It mattered not she was old enough to be his mother. Flattery, a dashing air, and promises captured her.

She stepped into his convertible, her regal stage at last, standing in the supposed admiration of those witnessing her triumph. Queen Mum personified she gave a glorious adieu before slipping into her seat, head held high, suppressing the want to giggle, ready for the wind to blow through her hair. No matter that in her flattered stupor she was being royally driven to grave disappointment and destruction. No matter. He was paying her attention.

James 1:16 NKJV “Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.”

Proverbs 24:1-2 “Do not be envious of evil men,
Nor desire to be with them; 2 For their heart devises violence, And their lips talk of troublemaking.”