Safe?

What does it mean to be safe?  Is it sliding into the proper place like getting to the base in a game of baseball?  Is it a strong, secure place with combination locks for our treasures?

 Dictionary.com offers- 
"free from hurt, injury, danger, or risk: to arrive safe and sound. 3. involving little or no risk...


That definition only works if you use the entire entry. To live free from danger or risk would be to fail to really live in this world.  Perhaps it is like sliding into the base for the remainder of the definition is to arrive safe and sound.  Not free from the risks of life but to arrive. 


My thoughts are jumbled today- my youngest child is creating his own life and that's all any parent  desires.  Except the life he is creating is in Seattle and suddenly that hip and beautiful city is full of violence and death.  He works at a coffee shop in the University District.  And today, close by in another U district coffee shop, a man is shooting and killing people. 


My phone rang and my brother asked if I had heard from Paul today. Had I heard the news? Of course 
not, I'm here in "no-tv, no radio, life is smooth" land. Suddenly, there's the bump.



But before I panicked, I remembered.  I chose to remember. God has been faithful to protect my kids before. God has been faithful to protect me. God was even faithful to my husband as his body failed and he entered the wonder on the other side of the thin veil of life.  I could trust this faithful God and He reminded me of that, of my safety. 


Years ago, my oldest son had a semester at Jerusalem University College http://www.juc.edu/long/campuslife.asp. He loved it, we were able to communicate by email chat, he seemed safe. He loved Jerusalem, he had favorite places to study and eat. It was a great experience.  Summer arrived and he was home once again. In August, one of his regular restaurants was blown up by  terrorists and fifteen people were dead. Safety was fleeting for them. Safety was an illusion for him.


Six years later, my second son was a senior and resident advisor at West Ambler-Johnson dormitory on the campus of Virginia Tech.  When the deranged student began his rampage- in  that dorm, my son was safe in his room. But so was the advisor for the next floor- he left the safety of his room to aid a student. Suddenly the job of a college dorm monitor failed in involving little or no risk...


So today as I waited for Paul to answer my text, I prayed. Not for a life with no risks but for a faith to trust when it's not sure you'll arrive safe and sound, for confidence in God's love when you don't know what safe looks like. 




And he's fine- he was home, safe, locked in and listening to the police helicopters overhead. Turns out his new home is half a mile from the abandoned vehicle linked to the shootings. 






So safety is not free being from risks but, indeed, we are safe. Safe in the Hands of a loving God, safe and secure from all alarms. Not safe from all harms but there is no courage when I panic, nor trust in my worry.





So I'll remind myself of that next time I feel a bump. Because there will be another bump in my world- living life involves risks.
But I'll remember.