There it was. That special, warm, cozy feeling. The one that makes me feel secure and calm, safe from all harm.
I reveled in it for a moment before turning my thoughts to the storm raging outside the window of the van. Then I had to ask myself: How is it that I can feel so secure with the wind nearly whipping the car off the road? We are on a remote southern Alberta highway, towing a tent trailer behind a mini-van, three weeks and thousands of miles from home, with the noise of the thunderous rain and hail loud enough to even drown out the almost constant sound of arguing in the back seat! Just what is it that makes me feel so secure?
I have felt this way before. Many times. Not always in the car, but always when there is a storm going on outside. In fact, it happens often enough to make me wonder: Is it because of the storm that I feel this way?
I doubt it. I’m not overly crazy about storms in general.
Is it because I’m with my family? Totally self-contained, happy, accepted, complete?
Probably not. I am often with them, but this warm, cozy feeling isn’t always there.
Maybe it is some crazy combination of the two? Perhaps I feel safe and secure because there is a storm raging outside and it can’t touch my family or me? Because I’m warm and dry, because I’m surrounded by those I love, because everything I need to be self-contained is with me? Because in the midst of a raging storm, I am inside an island of security?
Funny, isn’t it, how it takes something like a storm to make you appreciate what you have!
As I basked in the snuggly feeling that day, I couldn’t help but think how nice it would be to feel this way all the time. And then it hit me:
I CAN!
When I choose to ride in the arms of Jesus, when I let Him carry me through thick and thin, it doesn’t matter what storm life has dumped my way. I can feel the same warm, safe, secure feeling I felt in the midst of that southern Alberta storm! In Jesus’ arms, I am 100% surrounded by love, I am in need of nothing, I am warm and dry, and I know the storm can’t touch me. I am inside an island of security! And best of all, as long as I rest in Jesus, nothing can steal my peace. After all, didn’t Jesus say: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (John 14:27)?
It kind of makes me wonder why I don’t choose to rest in Jesus all of the time!
Lyn Chaffart