SAFE & SOUND FOREVER

Vulnerable: Capable of being harmed or injured; easily affected or hurt.

The last thing in the world human beings want to be is vulnerable.  We are quite good at building up our defense systems, both individually and nationally, to protest ourselves from being harmed or injured.  We build walls around us; we build walls within us, thinking that these will keep us safe and sound. The walls around us can always be knocked down by others bigger and stronger.  The walls within us that consist of defense mechanisms and a hardened heart will eventually destroy us from within.  Human beings are always vulnerable in themselves and can never be completely safe and sound.

When the Creator of all came to earth in the form of Jesus, he came as a new born infant, the most vulnerable of all creation.  He was born into a vulnerable situation, his earthly parents being forced to travel from their home, finding no room in the Inn, and forced to stay in a stable as their child was born.  Then they had to travel again to escape a crazed king who was threatened by this chills and was hunting him down to kill him.

Jesus grew into manhood in obscurity and when the time was right went out doing what he had been sent by his heavenly Father to do.  He went to those who were vulnerable and told them of a life where safety and soundness come only from receiving and believing in him and entering the kingdom of God.  This was blasphemy according to those ruling the Religious system of the day, so they hounded him as he walked and talked, finally hunting him down and taking him to the Political system of the day to be crucified and done away with.  He stood before the high priest of Jews and the governor of the Roman Empire physically bound and beaten, but spiritually not victimized and vulnerable but safe and sound in the hands of God.  “My kingdom is not of this world…You have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above” (John 18:36, 19:11).

The child of God may look weak in the eyes of the world, but we are really safe and sound in the hands of our Father.  The child of God may be vulnerable in this world, but this world is not our home, and there we are victorious; not because of walls or defense systems but because we belong to God.

Jesus’ ministry is to the weak and the vulnerable; to those whose walls of defense and hardened hearts have been torn down and broken.  He knows of our need for God and God will meet all of those needs as we hear His invitation to come to Him as our Father, our God.  Then and only then will we be safe and sound forever.