Our Safe Place..!

Yesterday I was invited to a party and my little granddaughter was also there.

Now she’s just learnt to walk and she tottered between all the tall people in the room, and maybe to her they looked like giants. I could see a bit of fear in her and some apprehension. All she could see were legs. She couldn’t see any of the faces nor where her father and mother were.

Slowly I saw the beginning of worry in her mind.

Suddenly she saw where I was sitting and a smile lit her face as she ran on her little legs to where I was perched, clambered onto the sofa, wedged herself against my side then peered with new confidence at the world.

It seemed her fear had vanished. She looked at all the faces not with any concern but boldly.

She hardly gave me a look but I could feel her little body against mine and I knew that this new courageous way of looking at the world, at the same people she’d looked with fear before, came from nestling next to me.

Isn’t it the same for us? We travel to new areas, experience something new, change cities, move to new jobs, maybe a new place of learning, and we are afraid. 

We all need a place of safety.

But what is that place we can move into from where we can look at the world with new confidence?

It might not be a physical place, like the warmth of my body I gave to the little one. Our security could be something that is not visible: A loving home to which we make zoom and phone calls to, or WhatsApp texts from our loved ones we hold on to and get our security.

But what if we had the security right there where we are?

What if we knew that God was looking after us, like me sitting on the chair?

It is so possible. The security we can get from knowing completely that our God above looks after us is absolute. Says words from the scriptures ‘if His eye is on the sparrow then surely he will care for you.’

What more assurance do we need?

Next time you’re feeling afraid wherever you are, whatever new experience you are going through, I urge you to look out of your window, into the sky for any bird that is flying up there, and think that if our God could care for that little speck in the sky, then greater is His love for you.

I smile with gladness as I can still feel the little one against me and I think that our God above also smiles when we wedge ourselves against him. I felt good and I know you will make God feel good by looking up to him for strength and comfort..!

Robert Clements is a newspaper columnist and author. He blogs at www.bobsbanter.com and can be reached at bobsbanter@gmail.com