“You are my hiding place; you protect me from trouble…” Psalm 32:8
Over the weekend I was watching our babies play in the back yard from my front row seat, also known as a five gallon bucket of baseballs. When your husband played SEC and professional ball, you could throw a rock in the garage and hit a bucket of baseballs, which often double as coffee tables and dining room chairs.
Anyway, there I sat on my pearl lookout, taking in what I know in my heart to be the glory days. Our two year old busy doing the serious business of digging a mud hole, while baby brother was equally hard at work studying the bugs in the grass between my feet.
Rip was off somewhere along the fence line like an old pro, but baby Jack was staying close to mommy, always keeping one hand on my leg as if to make sure I was still there.
Our shadows crossed as he wiggled underneath me. He was so content, so relaxed, nothing in the world to be worried about, completely unaware of anything going on around him.
For all he cared it was just him and the bugs.
There was a moment that our shadows aligned. Mine engulfed his tiny figure. Hot tears welled in my eyes as the thought crossed my mind, “Isn’t that like me and Jesus?”
Just then the sweetest whisper in my ear, “It sure is.”
A warmth washed over me that I can only describe as amniotic. Safe. Psalm 91 began to play on the strings of my heart.
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”
For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with his pinions,
and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.
A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.
You will only look with your eyes
and see the recompense of the wicked. Because you have made the LORD your dwelling place—
the Most High, who is my refuge—no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent.
For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.
On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.
You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot. Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name.
When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him.
With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.
Just as I am my baby’s hiding place, the Lord is mine. And so, my prayer today is for that sweet and childlike contentment to overtake mine and your space as we rest at the feet of our Father.
Just us and the bugs.
