N.B I wrote this a couple of weeks before lockdown. But as the Prime Minister has just announced that one of our children could be going back to school in a few weeks time, fear is something that could very easily creep in.
That’s the thing about fear – it can come in many different forms, about many different issues. And so, as we publish this now old post, we trust that the Holy Spirit will encourage you with these timeless gospel-truths to bring comfort to you in the midst of the very real fears you may be facing right now, in the midst of the Coronavirus Pandemic.
What is it for you?
Cancer? Social media? Sexual predators? Road accidents? Drowning?
Do you have a recurring fear? It’s the one that keeps you awake at night. Perhaps you have flashbacks to the near accident. Or the images of your child in A & E are seared across your memory.
Fear is crippling and debilitating. But this fear isn’t about you. It’s about your children, which makes it even more terrifying. And even more compelling a watch in your minds eye.
We don’t want to think about it, but somehow the fear just keeps resurfacing it’s ugly head.
As a couple, we have different recurring fears. Cathy is terrified of road accidents. We live on a main road, without off-street parking, which obviously contributes to it.
Scott is afraid of one our children drowning. When we were on holiday once, a life-guard alerted to us that our eldest was floundering around in the swimming pool. He had jumped in without his life jacket on. Scott often remembers the incident and is keen for all our children to master swimming ASAP.
Over the last few weeks I (Cathy) have been reading “To seek and to save: Daily reflections on the road to the cross.*” It’s a really excellent devotional for Lent. It follows the journey of Jesus to the cross through the second half of Luke’s gospel. The devotions are very short, but they are challenging and poignant (ideal for parents of young children).
The other night I woke up, and had the familiar image of one of our children nearly getting run over by a car. It came out of nowhere. I was just trying to get back to sleep – in fact, I may have been beginning to drift off, and BAM – there it was again. It comes in different forms at different times, and in different dreams (the other night I dreamt that our handbrake didn’t work and I only got our third child out of the car just in time before the car rolled off a clifftop).
But they always involve a near car incident. They always shock me by their suddenness. And I always feel my stomach lurch and churn.
Usually I struggle to get back to sleep again afterwards.
But the other night when it happened, the Holy Spirit immediately reminded me of what I’d read in the Lent devotion that day. It was based on this passage:
“Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?” Luke 12:22-26
I was immediately comforted by the knowledge that if God genuinely cares for and provides for the birds (who are much less valuable that my three year old son) then how much more would does he care for my little boy? Because he cares more for my son, I can worry less.
On the tail of this thought, came another; I immediately remembered that terrible accidents do happen to Christians, they are not immune to suffering. But then the sovereignty of God comforted me. I cannot add a single hour to my son’s life by worrying. I can’t do that very little thing. And therefore I don’t need to worry. Because worrying is powerless to rescue him.
And beyond that, if God loves my son, if he knows the exact number of days he has left, and if he has through his son Jesus, made eternal life possible; then I need not worry. Because even if the very worst were to happen – death and despair would not have the final say.
I’m so thankful for how clearly the Holy Spirit comforted me with God’s promises in the nighttime.
So what is it for you? What are your recurrent fears? What thoughts plague you in the night?
Why don’t you meditate on that passage and remember the comfort that Jesus offers you.
“He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” Romans 8:32