Thanks for stopping by! This is Day 16 of my 2015 “31 Days Reflecting on God” series. Find the rest over here.
“You are my refuge…because you are always with me, I always have refuge. There is no place I could go, and there no net I could get caught in where You would not be there and not be able to deliver me.” – E. J. Windheuser, You are Bigger
(Join me in following my friend Emily as she blogs through Psalm 31 this month, processing through some deep emotions.)
From the time we are conceived, our beings need and crave safety. For nine months our mothers carry us, protected by their bodies. As little children, we find security in our parents’ strength. We grow, we become independent, and we think we are strong. But we are nothing if we aren’t safe. We can put up a front and say we’re ok, but we’re not created to live in fear.
Children raised in a home where they felt unsafe as babies and toddlers struggle to face the future, and battle challenges and trauma beyond what most of us can imagine. We take safety for granted until we don’t feel safe.
I’m not particularly fearful about the future, in general, because I tend to live in the moment. But I’m constantly thinking about what could happen right now to my kids. Is my toddler safe playing outside? Is he talking to strangers? Is my baby sleeping ok? Is she still breathing? Their safety is always on my mind and I’m not really even an overly protective person.
Yet I cannot be my children’s only refuge – not now and not for the rest of their lives. I’m not physically capable of that. One moment my son is playing safely by my side and the next I hear him screaming in terror from the roof where he climbed out an upstairs window. Before I knew he was gone I had stopped being a refuge for him. (That story ended well, by the way, thank God!)
But God calls himself our refuge. He is our strong refuge. Our safe place. And he is eternal, and eternally with us, so he will always be the safety we need.
Stonewall Jackson, a Confederate Civil War general, liked to tell his wife that he was as safe on the battlefield as he was in his bed, because he was in God’s hands. I love that way of seeing life. I don’t believe we should be foolish with our safety “because God will take care of us” but I believe we have no need to fear anything at all because God protects us.
Does that mean nothing bad or scary will ever happen to us? No, but no matter what does happen, our souls are safe in God’s hands. My children will be hurt in their lifetime. I can’t stop that from happening. But as they commit their lives to God, they will be safe in him and I can rest knowing they are ultimately in his loving arms. Just as I am and always will be.