Relief Effort

Sometimes, when I was very little and I would go shopping with my mom, she would escape my presence for a second or two and I would panic, thinking I was lost.  I remember this feeling of sheer terror, thinking myself alone and unprotected…then my dear mother would emerge from the dressing room and wrap me in her arms.  I wasn’t lost after all—she had been there all the time, I just couldn’t see her.  I thought of that experience when I read this passage from Psalm 31:21-24, and it made me remember that God is like that:

Praise be to the Lord,
for he showed his wonderful love to me
when I was in a besieged city.
In my alarm I said,
“I am cut off from your sight!”
Yet you heard my cry for mercy
when I called to you for help.

Love the Lord, all his saints!
The Lord preserves the faithful,
but the proud he pays back in full.
Be strong and take heart,
all you who hope in the Lord.

He is forever present.  He is protecting us even when we can’t see Him. He hears us when we call.  Just like my Mom would never forget me when we were shopping in a department store (maybe at a football game, but never at a store –it’s Ok Mom, I’ve gotten over it), God will never ever forget to be present.

We don’t have to panic or be alarmed.  He is waiting to help.

The Lord preserves the faithful.

Be one of them.