| “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.” |
| —Proverbs 18:10 |
I found myself in a suburban Conference Center in Baltimore, Maryland, on September 11, 2001. The news of the attacks shocked me to the core. Insecure and, with my husband in another part of the Conference Center teaching a seminar, I felt very alone. More than anything, I felt it was time to hurry home. On another occasion, as I drove through a blizzard, unable to see either side of the road that I knew was framed with deep ditches, I only wanted one thing: to quickly, but cautiously, press onward until I could see the familiar lights of home.
In thinking about the way we respond when faced with times of danger, or other things unknown, I remembered my experience as an Elementary School music teacher. A little Preschooler in my classroom, insecure and afraid, often cried out and declared through tears: “I wanna go ’ome!”
Spiritually speaking, when we are afraid, lost, lonely, feeling abandoned, or facing danger, where do we first long to go? Job, in Chapter 23 of the Old Testament Book that bears his name, spoke these words:
Oh, if I only knew where I might find him!
For Job, his God represented “home” to him. And, in the loving presence of God, Job knew he would find the place where he could rightly feel at home. As Psalm 91:9 tells us:
If you make the Most High your dwelling—even the Lord, who is my refuge—then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent.
When disaster threatens us, or when times of trial overwhelm us, God wants us to hide in Him and trust Him for our security. On such occasions, it is time for us to hurry home. Famous preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, wrote: 1
God’s children run home when the storm comes on. It is the heaven-born instinct of a gracious soul to seek shelter from all ills beneath the wings of Jehovah. “He that hath made his refuge God,” might serve as the title of a true believer … Nothing teaches us so much the preciousness of the Creator, as when we learn the emptiness of all besides.
| 1 Spurgeon, Charles Haddon, Morning and Evening. Mclean, VA: MacDonald Publishing Co., Public Domain. p. 649. |
