Our Fortress Of Safety, Christ

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I remember that our oldest son was 4 years old on 9/11. We were traveling out of state and were getting ready to depart from our motel room when we saw the planes fly into the towers, live on TV. My spouse and I said nothing, just watching. Then our son spoke almost under his breath, saying, "That's not good." It wasn't the fire that led him to say that, I realized, but it was just something he felt.

Answering the questions that followed was a challenge for my spouse and I. It was a good exercise, though. We knew that we needed to immediately return home but we didn't know that, that evening, our living room would end up being packed with 40-50 adults who had experienced that same unsettled feeling that our son had, and that they would need answers just as he had.

Our son got to watch as every person in that room left with a relationship with Christ. There was no button pushing on anyone's part, no "evangelism" needed. It was a simple understanding that everyone there had. Tomorrow we may die. Are we in Him today?

Our son realized that night that the safe place we inhabit in this life is actually a place beyond this life. He realized that the worst thing that could ever happen to us is the best thing. He realized that when we finally close our eyes for the last time on this earth, the first face we will see will be that of Jesus.

And he realized that, for him, that was the safest place he could be - in a relationship with Jesus.

A couple years later as he had listened to a story about some brethren in the third world that had given their lives for Christ, he shared with us, "You know, when one of us dies, two more of us step forward like never before."

Out of the mouths of babes, we hear of His strength within us.