Snuggled Safely

As I'm rebooting this blog of mine, and as I'm healing from one of the biggest Upheavals of my life, I want to document the ways Jesus is meeting me in my mess.  I don't want to forget these things.  My fickle mind is always "losing" things and I have to relearn them again and again.  You would think that Jesus would get tired of reminding me....but He seems to love me enough to teach me one more time.  

Oh I am thankful for that!

My high school years were less than awesome.  I was always the Odd Duck.  I didn't rebel against my parents.  I didn't do the drinking scene.  I didn't have boyfriends.  I loved Jesus.  In the eyes of my peers, I was Odd.  Being the negative ninny that I am, I struggled with that.  I felt lost.  

It was in high school Jesus gave me a vision that showed me how much He loved me.  He gave me a vision of Him cradling me in His hands, like a bird nestled carefully.  Yet He also was holding me snugly, like a small child, against His chest.  To this day, some 30+ years later, I still hold to that vision.  I think it was the beginning of my love affair with birds.  

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on,.  Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air, they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not of more value than they? Matthew 6:25-27

So here I am with a love affair with birds.  God took the time to make them with beauty and variety and He cares for them.  Ah...He loves me too.  

So this Season of Upheaval. I've been clinging to Jesus with all that I'm worth.  I plead with Him to hide me in the shelter of His wings.  He gave me a verse to emphasize His care for me that expands the vision of my youth.  

"Therefore you are My witnesses," declares the Lord, "that I am He, and there is no one who can rescue from My hand." Isaiah 43:13

I love that in some versions "rescue from My hand" is "snatch from my hand."  No one can take me from the safety and security of Jesus' hands.  I am safe there.  I am loved.  

He still holds me.  No one can snatch me away.  I am His.  

Thank you, Jesus.