PASSIONATE PROTECTION

Exodus 34:1-35:9; Matthew 27:15-31; Psalm 33:12-22; Proverbs 9:1-6

“You must worship no other gods, but only the Lord, for He is a God who is passionate about his relationship with you.”

“But the Lord watches over those who fear him, those who rely on his unfailing love.
 He rescues them from death
and keeps them alive in times of famine. We put our hope in the Lord.
 He is our help and our shield.
 In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name.  Let your unfailing love surround us, Lord, for our hope is in you alone.”

“Leave your simple ways behind, and begin to live; learn to use good judgment.”

Two or so miles into a steep trail of mud and boulders, the trail dove down and through the roughest terrain yet.  Confident the path soon would turn up again, we proceeded down metal ladder rungs driven into the rock and pulled ourselves along using anchored steel bars.  The wind began to blow, and a storm swirled over the mountain without warning.  We took safe refuge in a convenient cave.  The storm passed, as all storms do, and in the interim, we figured we had lost our way.  Retracing our steps, we found the original goal, a flat rock summit with the valley spread out over two thousand feet below in all its Fall glory.  (See picture.)  Totally unprotected from the elements, it was right where we would have been if we had followed the very obvious trail markings initially.  Even after the storm, it was hard to keep our footing in the wind; during the storm, it might have been impossible.

Most would chalk the entire incident up to human error and coincidental good luck.  But my wife and I are better, more experienced hikers than that, and we both literally were blinded to the correct, obvious turnoff the first time.  More steel rungs and railings were drilled into the side of the mountain’s sheer rock face to mark the final ascent, yet we never saw them until we came back from the cave.  For us, it was a simple matter of divine protection.  And it seems significant that we found safety we didn’t know we would need only after diverting – or being diverted – from our original course.

There no doubt are many things one could learn from this experience.  Our personal lessons were clear.  First, we may be denied initial goals not because they aren’t worthy, but because the timing just is not right.  Sometimes, detours are right where we need to be.  Second, the Lord even protects us from ourselves!  We get so impatient, never stopping to consider there might be an unseen storm coming.  It is good to have a God who watches out for us. 

God is passionate about our relationship with Him.  He wants to protect it, and us, and He alone is worthy of our trust.  Next time, we will be more conscious of traveling with the Spirit.  Next time, we’ll also pay more attention to the path and the weather!