I love you, Lord; you are my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my savior; my God is my rock, in whom I find protection. He is my shield, the power that saves me, and my place of safety. I called on the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and he saved me from my enemies. [Psalm 18:1-3 (NLT)]
It was every parent’s nightmare; while the Dad was changing the toddler’s diaper, his four-year old daughter wandered away and disappeared in the zoo! We saw him as he was frantically asking people, “Did you see a little girl in a pink bike helmet?” As he went racing down the path toward the alligators and lions, we went toward the lemurs and play area. Fortunately that pink helmet made her easy to spot as she stood watching the black bears lumber through their enclosure. As we walked her back to her father, I said a prayer of thanksgiving that she would be returning home safely that day.
I thought of that anxious father the next day when reading Pearls Before Swine, a comic drawn by Stephan Pastis. Goat is extending sympathy to Pig for his grandma’s death when Pig carries him off. In the next few frames, Pig carts off his friends Duck and Cat. Next, we see all of Pig’s friends stuffed in a box under a sign saying, “SAFE PLACE WHERE I CAN KEEP AN EYE ON EVERYONE I LOVE SO NOTHING BAD CAN HAPPEN TO THEM.” The label on the box read, “Bad things stay away!” In the last frame, when Goat tries to explain that it doesn’t work that way, Pig just responds, “Don’t distract me. I’m standing guard.” Like Pig, I wish I could keep bad things from happening to those I love but I know I can’t. When my grands visit, determined that nothing bad is going to happen to them on my watch, I’m on high alert (and probably over protective). Of course, if parents and grandparents could, we’d erect a wall of protection around our loved ones to shield them, not just from death, but from heartache, injury, disappointment, and pain.
It would be a miracle if the worst that happens to that little girl is getting lost at the zoo and, while her pink bike helmet may protect her when she falls off her trike, it’s of little use elsewhere! We live in a fallen world: a world with disease, defiance, pain, sorrow, falseness, mistakes, greed, betrayal, loss, violence, malice, and death. Chances are that our children and grands will go further astray than just to the bears’ enclosure at the local zoo. Unlike Pig, we can’t stuff those we love in a box and stand guard over them night and day. Instead, we teach, encourage, warn, guide, lead, love, discipline, forgive, pray, equip them, and let them go. Although we provide them with God’s armor, we can’t make them accept or wear it.
We protect our gates, are cautious of what we allow into our homes, and stay alert to the dangers around us but what about when our loved ones leave home to lead their own lives? Many of the Psalms speak of God being a shield but that seems more figurative than literal. Although Shadrach, Mesach, and Abednego exited that fiery furnace unscathed, others weren’t that fortunate. Consider the fates of Stephen, the prophet Zechariah, John the Baptist, Jeremiah, Paul, and James! Sadly, there is no fool-proof way to protect our loved ones from Columbines or Sandy Hooks any more than we can from disappointment, grief, cancer, mental illness, rejection, failure, or death.
I used to ask God to be with my children and grands until I realized how silly my request was; He’s with them always! I now ask God to guard them from evil by making His presence known to them and His voice heard by them. As I pray God’s blessing of protection over my loved ones, I give them to Him, trusting that He will bring them safely home, if not in this world, then in the next!
We know that within a few days of the angel’s visit that Mary went to her cousin Elizabeth’s home, but what of those first few days after the annunciation? Did Mary tell anyone or did she wait until she’d seen proof of Elizabeth’s pregnancy before she truly believed that she, too, was with child? Did she tell Joseph immediately or wait until she returned to Nazareth three months later?
“Over 1 million served,” was the sign Ray Kroc posted at his first McDonald’s franchise in 1955. That number became 100 million in 1958 and was 1 billion in 1963. When the number of burgers served surpassed the 99 billion mark in 1994, operators were told to change their signs to “Billions and Billions Served!” Executives at McDonald’s claim they no longer keep track of how many are served but I don’t believe it! Someone there knows exactly how many of those hamburgers have been sold, along with the number of Egg McMuffins and chocolate shakes.
Since he had a business meeting in Switzerland later in the week, my son went to London over the weekend to see his daughter who is in college there. Nearly every photo texted back to us showed my grand eating. Admittedly, she is a starving college student, living on a tight budget, who has grown tired of eating peanut butter, hummus with veggies, Raman noodles, and pasta in her apartment, so she took advantage of having access to her father and his credit card. With Dad paying the bill, she could again eat steak and lamb chops, indulge in gelato, and stock her pantry with fruit, meat, and cheese from Borough Market. As much as this starving coed needed food, what she really needed was a visit from home. Hugs from her father probably offered more nourishment than any amount of food. His visit did more than replenish her cupboards; it recharged her emotional batteries.
Devotions of the Heart 