Safe Spaces

Psalm 71:1-3

In you, O LORD, I take refuge;

let me never be put to shame.

In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;

incline your ear to me and save me.

Be to me a rock of refuge,

a strong fortress, to save me,

for you are my rock and my fortress.

We talk a lot about ‘safe spaces’ these days. 

 Everyone needs places where they are truly safe and can simply be themselves, without having to hide behind a mask or worry about being judged and shamed or shunned.  Most places, including most relationships, in our lives are not safe, not entirely.  Calling something a ‘safe space’ doesn’t make it so, only experience can teach us whether a particular place, or person, or group, is truly safe. 

The Hebrew people experienced safety, care and protection in their relationship with God.  It wasn’t always easy, and sometimes they felt that God had abandoned them or was punishing them, but in the end they always returned to a loving, trusting relationship with God because, in the end, even when God appeared to be absent or punishing, they realized that God was with them and for them. These verses from Psalm 71 express this faith, this trust in God. 

 I hope that you feel safe in the presence of God.  Many people do not, because they have been taught that God is angry and judgemental.  This is not true.  God is love, self-sacrificing love.  This is the message of Jesus, shown to us in his life, death and resurrection.  He lived God’s love so that we could see that it will stop at nothing, not even death, to bring us together. 

Whatever you may have been taught, I pray that the message of Jesus will lead you into a close and trusting relationship with God our Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer.

AMEN.