“Does God always want to keep me safe?” A few weeks ago, my four year old asked me this question over breakfast. Little did I know how relevant it would be for the time we find ourselves in today.
I thought about my answer for a minute. Wanting to give him a biblical answer, one that builds his theology correctly. I knew I couldn’t just say yes. But I didn’t want to give him a blanket “no” response either. This is what we talked about:
1. Knowing what we can do to stay safe.
We talked about how God wants us to make wise decisions so that as much as it depends on us, we can be safe. I talked about how we practice this on our regular walks by looking both ways before crossing the street, walking together as a family, and paying attention to what is going on around us. We can help keep our bodies safe by the way we treat them and protect them. My four-year-old knows most of this already so we didn’t stay on this for long. Besides this wasn’t his real question. What he really wanted to know was if God would keep any and all bad things from happening to him. “Does God always want to keep me safe?”
2. God calls some people to “unsafe” locations.
We talked about how God calls missionaries to go to places where people don’t love Jesus and want to hurt those who do. But God called these missionaries to go and show the people how much He loves them. When God calls you somewhere and tells you to do something for Him, Obedience to Him is always the safest place to be even if it doesn’t make sense to you at the time. (Jonah didn’t obey God – He thought that what God was asking Him to do was too dangerous. Instead, he ran to what he thought was safe and ended up in the belly of a whale. This whole whale belly thing could have been avoided if Jonah had only listened).
Point your children back to scripture:
I wanted to tie this back into scripture. The most important thing we can do for our kids when answering their questions is pointing them to scripture. My children just talked about Daniel in Sunday School, I figured I would start there (if not I would have used Jonah).
I asked my four year old, “do you remember the story of Daniel?” he nodded.
“Was Daniel safe when the king said he couldn’t pray to God?”
“No,” he said.
“But Daniel knew that no matter what, he would obey God because God was bigger than the king. Daniel knew that God could protect him and keep him safe. But even if He didn’t, Daniel knew that God had something better for him. Daniel’s safety, even in the middle of an unsafe situation, came from God not his circumstances. Even if we face things that aren’t safe, or that are scary, or that hurt we can know that God is big enough and strong enough to keep us safe, but even if he doesn’t he has something better for us – eternity!”
This leads me to the next point in answering our kid’s questions:
3. Pointing our children to the hope of eternity
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.”
– Jeremiah 29:11, KJV, Emphasis mine.
God expects to keep his promises to us. We remind our children of God’s promises to us as often as we can
What are some of God’s promises?
1. Salvation through Christ (Romans 10:9-10)
2. Comfort and help through the Holy Spirit (John 14:16-17; John 16:7-16; Acts 1:8; Romans 8:26)
3. Eternity with no more war, sickness, pain, or sadness (Revelation 21:4; 22:1-5)
While God doesn’t promise us safety, He does promise us victory (1 Corinthians 20:51-57). Victory comes in eternity (Revelation 20:14). The healing we see God do and the peace He brings to conflict here is simply a glimpse into what is to come. The pain he erases, and the comfort he gives us now are just a small taste of what the future holds for us as believers.
Ultimately our safety doesn’t lie in a resolved, or happy circumstance for us – it lies in the Hope of eternity.
As we talk about the hard things of this life, and when our children ask us hard questions, we need to continually remind our children that our hope is not in a new set of circumstances. No, our hope is in Christ – and the future He gives. As Christians we must be future focused. We must be eternity minded.
That’s not to say we can’t or shouldn’t pray for safety and peace. As believers we ought to pray for glimpses of eternity, tastes of God’s power, and the reality of his peace. But when we find ourselves in hard, dangerous, or hurtful circumstances we must have hope in the future to come. It’s the hope of a better place, the hope of glory that remains the light at the end of whatever dark tunnel we face.
4. Be Eternity Minded.
I’ve been slowly making my way through the Old Testament in my daily Bible reading – occasionally pausing to go through a New Testament book, or a bible study that is needed in my life. Here are two amazing scripture passages I’ve read recently that speak to this idea of being Eternity Minded.
The first is in Hebrews 11 where the writer talks about Abraham:
By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed and went out to a place he was going to receive as an inheritance; he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he stayed as a foreigner in the land of promise, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, co-heirs of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
Hebrews 11:8-10, CSB (emphasis mine)
I first read this about a year ago and I was blown away at how easily we can say the same thing. We can live in tough situations, in uneasy places, or go through tremendous trials with peace because we are looking forward to a city that God has already built for us. This world is not our home. Earth is not our eternity. Our eternity lies in the kingdom of God. And that kingdom, if you read revelation, is the most beautiful and perfect place beyond our wildest imaginations (read revelation 21-22 to see a description the future city that awaits us).
Eternity In the book of Job
This second passage that gives such a clear example of what being eternally minded means is in Job 19. In these verses Job is saying that no matter what happens in his life or even to his life, he knows his redeemer lives and that though eventually he will die, he will see God.
For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God,
Job 19:25-26, ESV
There is beauty in that last line of this verse. Job says that even when his skin is destroyed, he will see God in his body. He is saying that though I may die, I am sure that I will see God. When I see Go, it will be as if I never died.
Unfortunately, there’s no simple or yes/no answer to this question of, “does God always want to keep me safe?” If we point our children back to scripture as often as possible and give them hope for our eternal future it will go a long way in helping them learn to answer the hard questions of life.
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