 You've
checked the locks, you've bolted the windows, you've cleaned your
gun (you know who you are!), and yet something is missing. You still
don't quite feel safe. You heard about the killings and you were sad
and shocked and scared at the same time. This doesn't happen here,
except that it did and it does and it may again some day. And so now
you wait for the good news that the killer(s) have been captured and
you can feel safe in your own home and own town again. Safe, that
is, until the next event shatters your sense of security. But let me
say this to you. You are no less safe today than you were Monday
before this happened because the truth is this world is not safe for
us. It is a dangerous world with dangerous things and dangerous
people. It has always been so; if it were not true we would not have
so many psalms which revel in the protection of God.
And this is where we are to seek our true safety and security, in
the promises of the living God. God never promises to keep us safe
from all evils; in fact the Bible is clear that we will face down
things which are greater than we are. But God does promise to be our
refuge and the psalmist is right to return to that refuge. The truth
of it is this that for those of us who believe, we find permanent
refuge in the loving arms of God, the God who will not abandon us,
the God who will never leave us. Whatever we face in this world, we
face it as children of the living God and that means we will never
face it alone. |
Whatever might haunt us during these brief days upon God's earth has
no power over us beyond this place and this time. No, we can lock
our doors and we can bolt our windows and we can clean our guns but
we will never find refuge in these trinkets like the refuge and
safety and security we will find in the knowledge that God is with
us. But what of the saints in this world who suffer the pains of
tyranny and violence? Where is God's protection for them? Their
refuge is the same as ours; the knowledge that no evil power, no
matter how brutal or violent, can separate us from the love of God
in Christ Jesus our Lord. And it is this love, not the violence, not
the pain, not the fear, which shall endure for all time.
Prayer: O Lord, protect me this day and all my days. Be my
refuge that in you I might know the true safety of your love. I pray
in the name of Jesus the Christ. Amen.
[text from file received from Phil Blackburn, First Presbyterian
Church] |
