Quarantined days don’t have to become a quarantined daze…
Category: Devotional
Refuge
I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust.”
Psalms 91:2
Refuge.
Shelter or protection from danger, or a place of security, or anything that provides recourse, aid, or relief.
It’s what we flee to in order to be safe internally and externally.
That place where we feel most comfortable amid our fears, knowing that even if the worst happens…
We’re. Still. Safe.
If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,” and you make the Most High your dwelling.
Psalms 91:9
Why do we think a threat is always big? A storm. A hurricane. A tsunami.
Today we’re fighting an enemy so tiny and vicious countries don’t even know how to defeat it.
So where should we go for refuge after we’ve gone inside and locked our doors and stayed put but a small predator still rages?
We. Must. Reach. Higher.
No harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent.
Psalms 91:10
In the quiet, if we listen well we might just hear the truth: The Lord is the only real refuge that exists.
After this virus has come and gone. After we’ve moved out of our self-distanced habitats and launched into the new normal. After we cease hoarding toilet paper and water and sanitizer or whatever we hope will make life bearable during our quarantined daze.
After all that.
When we realize nothing harmed us and the disaster passed.
Will we acknowledge who chose to keep us? Will we truly understand refuge? Will we get it in our gut?
The refuge was never a what, it was always a who.
And all it takes to know that and to know Him is for us to spend weeks as refugees inside a camp called the globe, looking around for help and hope and healing and we have to and in fact we must stop searching anxiously around and…
Just. Look. Up.
A Love Letter to Leah
When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved, he enabled her to conceive, but Rachel remained childless.
Genesis 29:31
Dear Leah,
I see you.
People always want to consider you less than. Less than all the others. Defining less than as whatever the world says is worse on any given day. Dark less than light. Short less than tall. Single less than partnered. Alone less than friended. Curvy less than thin. Kinky less than straight. Homely less than lovely. Poor less than rich.
Outsider less than insider.
The female whose universe becomes manipulated by other’s opinions and actions. Society determining your rank. Making choices for what will make your life should be, even when you think you know already.
Best for you would be a community that loved you for you.
Precious Leah, you weren’t very old before you figured out the truth.
That wasn’t going to happen.
But when you opened your weak eyes and looked up, someone was watching. Someone cared. Someone not like the others, who had the power to do the one thing no one else could.
He opened your womb.
And you were fruitful and gave birth to strength and legacy. You were pleased with the outcome, though it did not ultimately change your world. Family, community, even your man, everything else remained the same.
Beloved Leah, that is the behavior of the world. But the world is not God.
Turn your weak eyes away from propaganda and manipulation and embrace the God who provides, making a way out of no way. He sees you as vibrant and beautiful and worthy.
Leah’s of the world, there is a God who sees you and loves you. He opens your life and allows you to bring forth good work. Bless Him with the fruit of your womb – the work of your hands and the fullness of your heart.
Praise Him for his eye is upon you.
It always was. It always will be.