Are we ever really safe?<\/p>\n
What is safety, after all?<\/p>\n
Hiking my favorite North Carolina mountain trails last week renewed many memories.\u00a0 One particular incident occurred so long ago I don’t know exactly where it was (possibly Linville Falls) or my age (maybe six or seven.)<\/p>\n
It was a damp trail, dropping off to a river on one side, but with a rock wall rising on the other.\u00a0 Water seeped from the wall, making muddy, damp sections along the way.\u00a0 It was a perfect environment for salamanders, and I saw several scurrying nearby.<\/p>\n
I have always loved reptiles and amphibians, an interest that was nurtured by my father.\u00a0 Whenever he found a creature in our garden, he would show it to me with such delight that I began to delight in them as well.\u00a0 Frogs, snakes, lizards\u2026I was fascinated by them all.<\/p>\n
So on this particular day of hiking, as I watched the little creatures making their way along the trail, I took note of one very tiny salamander.\u00a0 I was convinced it was lost and its mother was looking for it.<\/p>\n
The baby ran into a small hole in the rocks and I knew just what to do.\u00a0 I wedged a rock into the opening, completely stopping it up.\u00a0 I felt sure this would keep anything from harming the creature and would keep it from roaming out of reach of its mother.<\/p>\n
I never considered how the mother would move the rock to get to her baby.\u00a0 Nor did I think about how the baby would find food and water in that little hole.\u00a0 In my efforts to protect the baby from certain dangers, I created others.<\/p>\n
Silly humans.\u00a0 Not nearly as smart as we think.\u00a0 We can’t possibly know or plan for all of the possible outcomes of a situation, so how can we keep our loved ones safe?<\/p>\n
The answer is simple.\u00a0 We can’t.\u00a0 Only God can and it’s to Him we need to entrust those we love.<\/p>\n
I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.\u00a0 <\/i>Psalm 4:8 NIV<\/p>\n
HE is our Answer and our Safety.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Are we ever really safe? What is safety, after all? Hiking my favorite North Carolina mountain trails last week renewed many memories.\u00a0 One particular incident occurred so long ago I don’t know exactly where it was (possibly Linville Falls) or my age (maybe six or seven.) It was a damp trail, dropping off to a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=98"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99,"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98\/revisions\/99"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=98"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=98"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=98"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}