“Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. This I declare about the Lord: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and I trust Him.” Psalm 91:1-2 ESV
Most of us don’t like storms. In Central Texas, we usually have the threat of tornadoes during springtime, as well as the threat of severe thunderstorms that can produce hail the size of a golf ball or larger. But when I was growing up, the threat of severe weather was continually on my dad’s mind. Simply put, he was deathly afraid of storms.
I don’t know how old I was when Daddy sought to remedy his fear of bad weather by having what we called a “storm house” built. I remember the day when some men came and began building this steel-reinforced one-foot thick concrete square, about 8x8x8x8. The storm house was built into the side of a red dirt hill by the road running past our property. I can guarantee that no tornado would have ever wiped us out when inside this shelter. And Daddy was counting on that very thing.
The only problem as I see it now is that this shelter my dad was counting on for safety was a good 20 yards from the house. However, that fact didn’t deter Daddy. Whenever a storm was coming, he would summon Mother, my siblings, and me to make the trek to the storm house, sometimes even waking us from our sleep. In some cases, we’d be soaked before we arrived and at other times we made it there just in time. Three vivid things stand out in my memory about the storm house: 1) there was only one straight-back chair inside; 2) Daddy was always the one who sat in it; and 3) there were what seemed like hundreds of granddaddy long-leg spiders who didn’t like us disturbing their residence. With the old kerosene lantern as the only light, we children kept both eyes peeled, surveying for any unusual activity on their part.
Never in the length of time that I had to make the trip to the storm house did a tornado pass by. The last time I intended to make a trip there a was after Daddy had passed away. One weekend, my little daughter Shelly and I were visiting my mother. A severe storm was coming so we decided to head for the shelter of the storm house. The only problem was that we waited a wee bit too late to make a run for it. The wind was blowing us backward when we tried to open the gate; the umbrella was turned inside out due to high wind; and we were soaked by the hard rain already falling. Of all things, we stood there laughing before deciding to go back into the house. Thankfully, as bad as the storm was, we were safe inside the shelter of Mother’s house.
Today, the storm house is no longer there due to the county demolishing it in order to do extensive work on the road. But these fond memories made me chuckle, as I hadn’t thought about this particular memory in many years.
As I write this, I’m thinking about another type of shelter that God provides for us. We will all face times when we need rest and safety from the storms of life. Circumstances can bear down on us at times. Things may seem hopeless, but that is not true. There is ALWAYS hope because we have a shelter—a safe place where we can go time and again. This shelter will protect and comfort us every single time. To be a recipient of such security, one only needs to trust that God is who He says He is, that He can do what He says He will do, and that through belief in Jesus Christ, eternal life will be ours when we leave this world. He will take us under His wings and into the safety of His arms, shielding us from the worst of the storm. Based on personal experience, be assured that He will bring us out of our storm to be even stronger in our walk of faith.
Amidst these tumultuous days in which we are living, having the assurance of such a shelter will keep our hearts and minds at peace and give us much-needed comfort in knowing that our safe place surrounds us, that no storm can destroy us, and that God will always be with us.
Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, You are our Protector and Safe Haven through every step we take. You give hope when there is none; You bring peace when the noise of the world is pressing in; and You give assurance that our trials here on earth are only temporary. You give us the strength to believe there is a better day coming and that one day we will experience eternal life—something so wonderful that we can only imagine. You promise that we can experience this abundant life in the here and now. Thank You for these promises found in Your Word. Please help us to grab hold of them in every area of our life. We love You and honor You in all things. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Again, your words took me back to that Missouri farmhouse with our smokehouse with the cellar below which was our safe place. No larger than what you described and acting as the storage place for the year’s potato crop and Mom’s many quart jars of green beans, corn, and anything else that she canned to take us through the winter months, we too would make our way to that safe place when stormy weather threatened. I never felt afraid when I was in that smokehouse and knew that usually the stay would be brief as most storms like that came up quickly and passed just as quickly. That’s for the reminder that we are safe in Jesus today, not just for a brief time, but for all of eternity.