Leonardo De Vinci wrote, “Here be dragons” on a map that is known as De Vinci’s Globe. He wrote his warning in Latin, while other mapmakers of old adorned their maps with actual pictures of wild creatures. Thus, those wanting to travel beyond the borders of the known world were thought to have been given fair warning.
Obviously, not everyone was dissuaded. It takes more than pictures and rumours to keep a determined pioneer at home. Going off the map can be a dangerous thing. The Dutch explorer, Abel Tasman, ‘discovered’ New Zealand in 1642. His unsuccessful landing party was intercepted by a Maori double-hulled waka and four of his men were killed by warriors. Tasman didn’t draw dragons; he named the area “Murderers’ Bay”. Fair warning from both sides.
Armed only with faith and a promise, Abraham ‘went off the map.’ But he wouldn’t allow being called to a place that he knew not, and to a people that he knew nothing about, to compromise the strength of his faith or the power of God’s promise. If ‘here be dragons’ then dragons there would be.
God still calls his people to “Go!” To leave our mapped-out lives. To travel beyond our self-drawn borders. And to face “the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan” (Rev.20:2). There you and I are ever locked in a life and death battle with this ‘Dragon.’ Who is charting the territory of your Christian service? What holds you back from going into the unknown? Jesus said, “I will be with you, even to the end of the age” (Mt.28:20). All you need is faith and the promise. Faith in Christ the Saviour, and the promise of being with Him for eternity. So, while Satan is busy frightening the masses into staying at home, Christians go out to meet him. We know Him who is with us, and him whom we shall meet.
John Staiger