There Are Still Safe Places

Early this morning I drove over to our local tourist town.

I mostly window shopped, but then my feet became tired just as my head did of such outrageous prices everywhere. Although not the pinch-penny I once was, neither have I abandoned all common sense to the point where I will pay $149 for a simple bedspread.

So I picked up some lunch then drove to a parking lot very near the old-fashioned movie theater I have told you about. From the outside, the theater is just a squat, white, non-descript building. It's the inside which grabs your collar and whisks you away to the 1940's. Like many things in this life, if you judge that theater only from the outside, you'll miss every wonderful thing about it.

Anyway, I sat in a parking lot very near there because of huge green trees across the street and only a couple houses. I thought, "How do some people live without trees and woods, especially the kind which go-rainbow in Autumn? It's hard for me to dream while I am looking at buildings in a city like the one I visited today so I took my lunch to that parking lot--to watch the trees and dream at noon on a Saturday morning.

And in the middle of my dreams and onion rings I thought, "You know? I feel just as safe right here as I do in my own home." In fact, all morning as I'd driven from store to store to shopping mall, I'd felt God's arms, His presence, around me, even as the thoughts of the horrible tragedy in London came to mind. 

Our own tourist town has often been mentioned as a potential place for a terrorist strike.

Often I think about what it is that really makes me safe--it's not the locks on my doors and windows at home--not really. If some lunatic was determined to break into my home, he could probably find a way. Same goes for my car.

Do I usually keep my doors and windows locked at home? Yes, out of wisdom, I always do. 

But you won't find me cowering afraid, inside, nor depending only upon those locks. Instead, You'll find me trusting God and the wisdom He gives. I mean, you'll never see me walking dark streets late at night alone or accepting rides from strangers! 

No, again, there is such a thing as wisdom and common sense and listening so to always be found in the center of His will.

Yet, if the center of His will someday takes me to an unsafe place, I'll trust Him there, also, and may I always live my life ready to leave it in a second, without loose ends and regrets.

And in the meantime, that my heart will know I'm safe and loved wherever my feet take me.


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"Go with God..."

"For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways..." Psalm 91:11