A place of safety

Being raised in town, but returning to the country homes of grandparents, gives a youngster a good balance of how different things can be. I was thinking today of both sets of my grandparents, which lived on farms about a mile from each other, and the learning experience of getting to visit the farm. Both of my grandfathers were dry land cotton farmers in west Texas, so one point of excitement was getting to ride on the fender of a tractor. Both had chicken houses, both had a cow or a calf close by, and I can remember for a brief time, one of my grandfathers had pigs. 

Of course bathroom facilities were nowhere near the house so you followed the well worn footpath to the outhouse. Running water inside the house was limited to a cold water tap at the kitchen sink, if the windmill had pumped enough water into the overhead storage tank. Electricity was still very new to rural homes when I was young, and new-fangled electric radios replaced the battery operated radios which were stashed away in the cellar.

Oh yes, the cellar. One of my grandparents had a cellar that was dirt floored with some make-shift wooden slats for steps going down into the ground. I remember getting in trouble for going down there except one time when a dangerous looking cloud was approaching and we all went in.  The cellar at the other grandparents house was just a few steps out the back door, and had concrete steps and floor and walls, and the walls were lined with shelves of canned vegetables that had been prepared from the garden. Their cellar, too, was the place to go if there was a bad storm approaching.  Neither cellar was appealing, inviting or comfortable, but at any given time, they could be appreciated as a place of safety.  Homes and barns and possessions might be destroyed, but the cellar was considered a safe place to be when danger approached. 

You don't see many cellars in the city. I suppose city folks would just rather take their chances against approaching bad weather. I do remember, on the farm, the cellar was considered a necessity. 

Think with me for a moment about the storms in your life. They may come in the form of illness, or the death of a loved one, or perhaps a jobless situation, a divorce, financial ruin, even family squabbles.  The best of us, nor the worst of us will be able to live a life without some difficulties and problems.  Wouldn't it be nice to have someone or something to turn to in those circumstances, and have just as much faith in them as a farmer has when he shuffles his family into the safety of the cellar?

Well, we do have someone that cares, someone to help, someone to be our refuge when trouble is near. Paul tells the Roman Christians and us, "...we rejoice in our trials and sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;  perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us."  Romans 5:3-5  And from the old hymnal comes the words of a song, "There is a place of quiet rest; Near to the heart of God."

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