Are You In His Safe?

Imagine losing everything.Maybe it’s a fire. Could be a tornado. For some it's a hurricane or a tsunami.I’m talking about a total loss, except for a very few things that you had stashed away for safekeeping before the disaster struck.What would you want those things to be?I ran across this picture today, taken last year after Hurricane Sandy. It struck me how this couple is grinning with delight in front of the total devastation of their home. They were delighted because the safe contained their family genealogy, a long and tedious work of hundreds of hours over years of research. They had set it aside months before for safekeeping in a heavy strongbox, and were so happy that they did.I think of the violence and chaos during Hurricane Sandy, represented in the mangled mess of debris that once was a peaceful home. In the height of devastation, winds tore through cities at the speed of 115 mph, sending surge waves of ocean water miles inland, leveling homes, uprooting trees, sweeping away cars and even whole buildings. The house in this picture became a place of chaos with wind, driving rain, and surging flood waters destroying everything, all around the safe kept in the basement.But inside this little safe, records important to the McDermotts remained clean, dry, calm and protected. The pictures shows them being retrieved after the danger was gone.And that makes me think of Jesus’ prayer for us in John 17:15, “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one” (NIV).The McDermotts didn’t have time to take their important papers out of the storm, but they were protected nonetheless.God has not promised that he will take us out of the storms of this world. We will face persecution, be surrounded by evil and temptation, and suffer the natural results of a world that resisted God’s care and protection. In fact, he wants us here for the time being for a reason.So while he has kept us in the world (we have a mission here to accomplish), he has also promised to protect us from the worst repercussions of being in this world. We are kept safe in his hand and we have nothing to fear. There is coming a day when we will be retrieved and that restoration will be a day of great joy!Think of what matters to God when you consider what/who he has put in his safe.Jude 1:24 – “Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy.”