September 17, 2010

• I'm Safe

  
  

  In my hands I held a little chest and as I opened the lid inside was a letter written many years before by my mother  – written to friends and family.  It was a few small pages, a brief account of her life, how she had journeyed to a strange land for a brief period and the difficulties that she had encountered there. Although I don’t remember her exact words, they were words of encouragement, hope and faith and a call to faithfulness.  With letter still in hand, my eyes wandered to the contents of the chest and there was a smooth grey-white oval shaped rock lying in the dust and numerous irregularly sized and shaped clods of ground surrounding it, one of which was resting on the rock.  And as I took this in and my eyes returned to the last few words of the letter, the meaning suddenly became clear…the last words of her letter “O safe to a rock that is higher than I, my soul in its conflicts and sorrows would fly.”

  And as I awoke from this very unusual dream this morning,  it seemed clear that I was the weak, helpless little clod of sand and that I could, like the little clod of sand, rest safely on the Rock that was higher than I no matter what might come my way.  I reached for my little hymnal to read the rest of the words of that beautiful hymn, here they are:

  O safe to the Rock that is higher than I,
  My soul in its conflicts and sorrows would fly;
  So sinful, so weary, Thine, Thine, would I be;
  Thou blest “Rock of Ages,” I’m hiding in Thee.

  Hiding in Thee, hiding in Thee,
  Thou blest “Rock of Ages,”
  I’m hiding in Thee.

  In the calm of the noontide, in sorrow’s lone hour,
  In times when temptation casts o’er me its power;
  In the tempests of life, on its wide, heaving sea,
  Thou blest “Rock of Ages,” I’m hiding in Thee.

  Hiding in Thee, hiding in Thee,
  Thou blest “Rock of Ages,”
  I’m hiding in Thee.

  How oft in the conflict, when pressed by the foe,
  I have fled to my refuge and breathed out my woe;
  How often, when trials like sea billows roll,
  Have I hidden in Thee, O Thou Rock of my soul.

  
  

  And as I pondered the words of this hymn the words of another came to mind just as strongly:

   

  The Lord’s our Rock, in Him we hide,
  A Shelter in the time of storm;
  Secure whatever ill betide,
  A Shelter in the time of storm.

  Refrain

  Mighty Rock in a weary land,
  Cooling shade in the burning sand
  Faithful guide for the pilgrim band
  A Shelter in the time of storm.

  A shade by day, defense by night,
  A Shelter in the time of storm;
  No fears alarm, no foes afright,
  A Shelter in the time of storm.

  Refrain

  The raging storms may round us beat,
  A Shelter in the time of storm
  We’ll never leave our safe retreat,
  A Shelter in the time of storm.

  Refrain

  O Rock divine, O Refuge dear,
  A Shelter in the time of storm;
  Be Thou our Helper ever near,
  A Shelter in the time of storm.

   

  As I got ready for work I mulled over all this, wondering why the Lord had laid this on my heart today but as the day has unfolded it has become clear…thank you Lord!  What an amazing God we serve.   May His message to me for my life today be a message for you for your life today too – He is faithful. 

   

  • 2:14 pm
  • 2 Comments