Life Is Fragile, and Yet . . .

As I scan through the photo albums, I see how the years have swept by me like a sideways wind storm on the top of our mountain. How could it have happened so fast that my boys, once just little chubby bundles of energy fighting to sit in my lap, are taller than I am?

It seems like it was just a few years ago that I was putting little snacks on the table, and now I am frantically trying to keep enough food in the refrigerator.

When I think about all the years that the Lord has given us, I am just amazed at His protection. Have you ever thought about the calamity that has been spared you? Don’t get me wrong, we have seen our share of hard times. Just last year I sat with my stomach in knots watching Hudson get an IV put in because of a bad case of malaria. But do you ever think of all that has been spared? The trials that were hurtling toward you and were thwarted? Have you pondered the mercy that the Lord has thrown out like a cast net and settled around us ensuring that we can’t be touched? It seems like life is so fragile sometimes, and yet in many ways we are untouchable.

You have hedged me behind and before, and laid your hand upon me. (Psalm 139:5)

I often think about this passage. If you ever get a chance to walk on our trails in the jungle, you will know that they are trails for thinking. Often as I am walking, I just hear the birds, look up to see a blue sky behind a canopy of trees limbs, and think. I am thankful that I can’t go anywhere without God (see verse 7 and on). I am thankful that He goes before me and behind me and even beside me. Even if I start off a path and begin heading the wrong way, He is there to bring me back. Our God Yahweh knows us so intimately. He has walked along each pathway with our family. He has guided us all these years, and he promises to do the same each step of our future.

This is where true peace lies, in the hand of an almighty Sovereign Lord.