Seeking Safety

One of the things I most cherish from my childhood was how my parents worked so hard to provide for me and my siblings and to shield us from the depravity of the world around us. I always felt loved and safe and like I had a steady home base to return to when I did get those glimpses of evil, whether in the hurtful words of others or in the inward struggle of my own heart. Metaphorically speaking, I did not have to dwell in darkness, because I knew where to find the light.

Most importantly, they pointed me to the One who would always be my refuge in uncertainty and discouragement. Not only in this life, but in the life to come. God has never failed, and He never will. His plans are perfect. He cannot be anything other than who He is: love, good, sovereign, eternal (and much more!). There was no better lesson I could have learned. As much as my parents loved me and fought for my needs and security, they knew they were and are just as needy as I was and am for One who could be our solid ground when – again metaphorically speaking – the storms rage and the waters rise.

Many emphasize the love of God. His kindness and grace. And rightly so – those are certainly His primary characteristics. But few consider the justice of God. His holiness and righteousness that demands that sin be called out and dealt with. And that is unfortunate, because without any of that, ideas about His love, kindness and grace are pretty shallow.

When we recognize that His love is tied inseparably to forgiveness, we are more apt to search our hearts and understand that the pain we experience in this life is due to our own rebelliousness. We desire to do things our own way, determine our own standards of good and bad, to answer to no one but ourselves. But the depth of God’s love frees us from that stressful spiral downward into – allow me another metaphor here – the shifting sands of postmodern tolerance and inclusion, and sets us on the solid rock of unchanging wisdom, unfailing integrity, and unceasing rest and security.

Then, no longer are we trusting in ourselves, but in the One who saved us from ourselves. No longer are we crossing our fingers hoping that we’ve been good enough to make it into heaven. We are assured that we will, because we trusted in the One who paid the debt that we could not pay to be made right with God and one day stand in His holy presence where peace will reign forever.

The reality is, sin reigns in our world. As much as we want to shield our loved ones from the difficulties that life brings, we will all experience struggles and disappointments in various forms, and ultimately death, because that is the result of sin. Justice calls for sin to be punished. And one day, God will fully and finally destroy sin so that it can destroy no more. But in this promise, we can see great hope, for He has given us a way out.

“Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land,
    you who do what he commands.
Seek righteousness, seek humility;
    perhaps you will be sheltered
    on the day of the Lord’s anger.” (Zephaniah 2:3)

“Seek the Lord while he may be found;
    call on him while he is near.
 Let the wicked forsake their ways
    and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them,
    and to our God, for he will freely pardon.” (Isaiah 55:6-7)

God is transcendent, untouched by the limits of this life in a cursed earth, yet He still graciously acted in our finite time and space to reveal Himself to us, to show us the way to be set free from the evil we experience - sometimes at the hands of others, but oftentimes due to our own inherent evilness. He sent us the Lord Jesus Christ, God in flesh. God took on human form to die in our place. He paid the ultimate price to shield His beloved children from the fiery arrows of life, in the present and the future (that was the last metaphor, I promise). But that requires that we make a decision to be His child. Because until we recognize our dependence upon Him, we are lost, and to state it bluntly – we are His enemies. But when we humble ourselves and seek Him for help, He is there to forgive, to protect, and to give us a beautiful future that one day will never be threatened by evil.

The Lord your God is with you,
    the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you;
    in his love he will no longer rebuke you,
    but will rejoice over you with singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17)