My refuge

A few weeks ago, I was out walking our dog along the back fence line on one edge of our housing estate, when it started raining quite heavily. It was too far to run to find an entrance back into the estate, to find a place where I could find some shelter, so I stuck as close to the fence line as I could. This provided some measure of protection, until I came to where a line of thick fir trees in someone’s backyard, which then gave me the rest of the protection I needed to stay reasonably dry.

Between the fence and the trees, there was enough shelter for both our dog and I to stop and rest whilst the rain got heavier. We were even able to sit down. I was wondering whether the rain was settling in for the day, when suddenly it began hailing. I became even more grateful for the shelter.

That was until I had a moment of panic, when hail began falling on me. It only took a moment to realise it wasn’t falling as thickly or as hard as it was in the open. The fir trees that were my shelter, were able to stop much of it and those it couldn’t stop it slowed down, so I only getting a little wet, nothing else.

And me with my analogies, brought it back to Psalm 46:1 (and a very old chorus as well) “God is my refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.” (NIV)

God was protecting me from the worst of the damage, but I was not completely shut off from what was happening in the storm. So it is with our world - God doesn’t stop bad things happening to us, doesn’t separate us from the world we live in. He can’t - we have to be in the world to reach it.

However, he does give us his protection and possibly even more importantly, his strength, to deal with whatever does come our way. We have to reach out and accept it, but when we do, we find that even the hardest hail storm can’t really hurt us, even if we’re scared it will.