Psalm 46:1-3 (ESV)
1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear though the earth give way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, 3 though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah
I grew up in rural Southern Illinois for much of my early childhood. For the most part it was peaceful down there before my wife swept me off my feet and dragged me up to Wisconsin. Don’t worry, I refer to Wisconsin as “The Motherland” now…I’m not a false convert :)
There were some really odd things about living in Southern Illinois. Many in fact. Yet one stood out more than others. Pretty much NOBODY had basements. You would think that being in a region of Illinois where Tornado activity was fairly active, and at times, very severe, that basements might just happen to be a good idea. You might think that, but you’d think wrong.
For whatever reason, most people plainly didn’t have them. So you might ask, “What did you all do when bad weather came along?” Well, we would pile up together in the most unlikely of shelters…..our family bathtub. “Wait, are you serious?! How would that save you from a tornado?! You know, something that could literally rip a house off of its foundation!?”
As happenstance would have it, that exact thing happened to us. I recall playing in the back yard with a nerf gun. Then was told to come inside because weather was on its way. So I ran inside and played with our cat for a bit until the storm clouds literally burst up out of nowhere! At first it was just a little pocket of black clouds. Then they grew…and grew….and grew…and grew some more. Then the wind came. Then the hail. And in a mere matter of minutes, it went from lightly cloudy to terrifying. I remember our dead-bolted back door getting ripped open from the sheer force of the suction of what would become a F3 tornado forming right behind our house in the oil field. We all ran to the bathroom and piled into the bath tub. The house was shaking…the sound of that tornado haunts me to this day. I surely thought, “This is where I die!!!” Yet in a dramatic almost cartoon like way…being sucked up into the clouds never to be seen from again.
Remember how I mentioned earlier that tornadoes have the potential to suck entire houses and buildings off of their foundation??? Well we had a separate, in ground, indoor pool. And that tornado ripped the whole building off of its foundation and threw it about 60 feet directly into our neighbor’s home. (Praise God they were not home).
When we got up out of the bath tub, not a single one of us was harmed. Other than being completely terrified at what just happened of course. The most unconventional and unassuming thing became our salvation.
How similar is that thought to that of Christ? Christ came in a very unassuming manner. Isaiah 53 tells us that He was a very unassuming looking person. Further, He lived an unassuming life being that of a carpenter. Yet within that very unassuming man dwelt the fullness of God the Son. Full of His divinity and majesty!
With all of that power, He certainly COULD move mountains into the sea. He COULD make the very foundations of the earth give way. He COULD make the very grounds tremble and the oceans churn from merely being in proximity to His sheer glory. Yet, do you know what He did with all of this power? He came and He washed feet.
He came and He served the least of these. He came and He brought hope to all of mankind. That for our sin, we might not perish, but spend all of eternity with Him. He became a very real refuge in our very real need. Just as verse 1 says above…He IS our refuge. Christ IS our deliverer. He IS our Savior. He IS our protector.
And most importantly, He desires to be that for His children. For those whom submit to His Lordship. For those who trust fully in His abundant grace. What kind of wonderful and stunning love is that?!
SOLI DEO GLORIA!
