THE TIKBALANG

Back in the day, as a little girl, my siblings and I used to get terrorized by stories about this Philippine mythical creature by our uncles.  When spending the weekend with my grandmother, we would sit out on their candlelit patio in the dark of the night and the stories will begin.  

The tikbalang is said to have been from the earth and guards their territory in the woods from intruders.  They stand watch leaned up against a tree smoking a cigar all night long.  They would devour anyone who crosses the line.  The only way to tame such creature is to steal one of its thorny golden strand of hair without its knowledge and it will do whatever you want for the rest of your life.  It is also believed that if you walk in the woods with your shirt worn inside out, you would go undetected.

As a child, I was terrified of this and other creatures that lurk in the night.  Imagine if I could sleep that night.  Uncles are great, aren't they?

In life, there are no Tikbalangs at all.  I think that this folklore was conjured up so that people can deal with the reality of their lives and tikbalangs are merely symbolic to their own.  There are fears in each and every one of us that we face each and every day.  Notice that my uncles never mentioned God and how we are protected?  They never once said well if you prayed, God will protect you from these creatures' harm.  

I believe there are principalities out in this world running amok and their chief is satan.  They don't roam around the earth scaring us with their images, although I believe they are as ugly as tikbalangs, but they feed us the lies, talking down on us so that we could not forget that even though are sins were washed away by Jesus' sacrifice, we are made to believe that we are not worthy of it so why even try?  Well, there is some truth to that, we are NOT worthy of the life of God's only Son, but do we have a choice in the matter?  Jesus did it, He died for our sins!  Whether we like to admit it, accept it, or stand on it or not, He did.  My reasoning is, why fight it?  It's there for the taking.  It's there for FREE! We didn't have to work for it.  He loved us so much that to this very minute He is up there standing guard from God's mighty wrath!  He's all, "Not yet, Father.  Give them a chance."  But instead of recognizing this, most people ignore it.

So why not pluck that strand of a tikbalang's golden hair?  The acceptance of Jesus in our lives and in our hearts?  It is the only antidote from being devoured by satan and his principalities! When you have Jesus, you tame satan, et al. and they will stay away from you forever.  Sometimes the stories of our childhood translated into the truth of God is a lesson to be learned.

Until my next rant.... LOVE ONE ANOTHER!