Are You Safe?

"God is our refuge and Strength

An ever present help in trouble..."

Psalm 46:1

"God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble..."  Psalm 46:1. "Did you feel safe?"  "Were you ever in any danger?"  Those are the kinds of questions people ask when you take a trip to Israel.  I know many don't take this trip because of fears about security.  I understand that.  The news reports in the west make this seem like a dangerous place.   But the truth is that the only violence I've seen since being here was on TV - a news report about rioting in Baltimore.

Oh, there is danger here.  Israel has enemies all around it.   Security is very important here.  You see that in the very thorough check you go through before boarding a flight to Israel.  I often tell people that I never feel safer than when I am flying to or from Israel. Except that wouldn't be true because I hate turbulence.  

That all brings me to my thought today.  Is there any real security in this world?   Recent events suggest that even the White House can not be kept 100% safe.  Every parent who has sent their child out with the car alone for the first time has learned that they can't and won't always be able to protect their kids.  

Is there any place we can feel 100%safe?  These words from Psalm 46 give the answer.  "God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble..."  The only real security we have in this life is knowing that we are in God's hands.  As those baptized into Christ that is precisely where we are!  His hands hold us and they are amazing.  They are the strong hands of the Almighty God who created the heavens and the earth.  They are the loving, nail scared, living hands of our Savior who died for us and rose again.  His are hands we can trust.

Please understand this - this security is not a guarantee that nothing bad will ever happen.  This is a security that knows that even when the worst happens - we will be safe.  Psalm 46 does not say, God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble, therefore everything will always be fine."  No it says, 

"God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble, therefore we will not fear though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea..."

I read these words to my father in ICUS, when he had his heart attack.  Moments later he died.  Did God fail to keep my dad safe?  No, in fact He kept his promise.  He became in the face of death my dad's most secure refuge!  Now my dad is safe in the hands of Jesus awaiting the Day of the Resurrection.  Even now you and I by faith are in those same hands - no matter what happens.