I didn't mean to kill Sam...honest!

 

I don't suppose a "city of refuge" or two managed to survive these thousands of years...? No, I guess not.  At any rate, I doubt that any of Sam's relatives will come looking for me to fulfill Leviticus 24's mandate: "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth". It would be decidedly impossible for them to carry out, considering that Sam was my prized jar of sourdough starter! 

I am very clumsy (thanks to fibromyalgia and arthritis) and prone to dropping and breaking things, so it's really not a wonder that one morning, as I was moving Sam in the fridge, his jar slipped out of my hand and crashed to the floor with a burst of glass shards, condemning  him to a slow, gooey death.  (No way his relatives could do the same to me for revenge!)

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Of course, Jesus made it clear that the old rule is obsolete (thank Heaven!)  (We sure have it so much better than in the Old Testament, don't we?)  We now walk with Him in a very different context,  but that doesn't mean that we won't still make mistakes, cause accidents, have good intentions go awry...or kill our sourdough starter...because we will. Not only that, but we will suffer from the mistakes of others and from the accidents they cause,  in spite of their good intentions.  (We will most likely also suffer from others' bad intentions!)  Jesus Himself pretty much guaranteed it in John 16:33:

"In this world you will have troubles."  

But that's not all He guaranteed.  The verse continues: "But take heart!  I have overcome the world."

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Even when on the "narrow way" with Him, all kinds of uncomfortable, unwanted, frustrating things can happen.  That's just life; (and no, it's NOT fair!)  However, if we believe Christ's promises, our hearts, our souls, the part of us that is eternal is protected.  

"The LORD preserves those who are true to Him."  (Psalm 31:23)

"He will not let your foot slip.  He who watches over you will not slumber."  (Psalm121:3)

"Things"...circumstances...pandemics...accidents...meanness in others...sadness...lost sourdough starters...or even worse...not one of them is too much for our Father to handle, not one is so powerful that it can rip away the protective shield He places around us.   He gives us promises, over and over. One of my favorites is in Psalm 91:14-15:

          

                                    "'Because he loves Me,' says the LORD, 

                                                 'I will rescue him; 

                             I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.  

                                     He will call Me, and I will answer him; 

                                            I will be with him in trouble; 

                                       I will deliver him and honor him.'"

The most awesome way of reading this passage:  for every "he(she)" or "him(her)", put your name in its place.                                 

                                                   It's amazing...honest!