Safe Arms

Deliver me out of the sadness,
Deliver me out of the madness.
All of my life I've been in hiding wishing there was someone just like you,
Now that you're here, now that I've found you,
I know that you're the one to pull me through.
-David Crowder

Sometimes all I want is my mom or dad. You know the feeling. Life begins to be a little more than you can handle, or want to handle. You need someone to take care of the responsibilities. Rather, you want to run as fast as you can, for as long as you can, in the opposite direction. Out of sight, out of mind. And in this case, thus out of obligation.

I shared with a friend that I feel like I just am not strong enough to handle what I have been given. The gifts we receive implicitly bring responsibilities, and quite frankly I have been feeling like moving to a farm in Kansas and unlearning everything I know would be great. But his response was just right - You don't have to be. God is.

Cliche, sure. But when you place yourself in the imaginative and visual realm, consider yourself in your smallness. Those shoulders are only so wide. That back is only so strong. That head can only be held up for so long. And then you couple, you break under the weight. I know I do. And moreover, I would prefer to not have to get to that point. I would prefer to be overshadowed, to have the larger arms encircle me, the stronger, wider back behind me, the loving head of my Father above me. If he's holding me, scooping me up in his arms like the baby I am, then it seems as if those heavy burdens have become feathers floating away.

And then he can gently rock you to sleep, kiss your forehead and tuck you in. You can use his arm for your pillow. He won't leave you while you rest. You can sleep safely.

Some lyrics from a song by Paramore also speak to this:
Keep me safe inside your arms like towers, tower over me.
Keep me safe inside your arms like towers, tower over me.

What I love is that she follows the bridge with a short pre-chorus of:
and I'll take the truth at any cost.

This is the courage that comes from knowing ourselves in this way - as the little one, the child, the baby, the lamb, the one to be held and carried and protected. The knowledge of this, the reality of it, creates the space we need to know the hunger in our hearts to love our Comforter even more. Who doesn't find that when love is ignited in their heart from gratitude, they yearn to give back to the one who they are thankful for? Who doesn't want to know better, know more deeply, one they find themselves loving? It's an ongoing cycle of appreciating someone and therefore loving them more through this gratitude and then because of the love wanting to know them more, and then as you discover more of them you find there is more of them that you love, and then you are grateful all the more. It goes on and on. And so as you are being held in these strong arms, against the chest of God, listening to his perfect Heart beat, you yearn to know him. You want to love him more and to do so you need to know him more. Because he is the Truth, this means seeking out the truth. And so we realize that everything in this life, even our very lives themselves, pale in comparison with coming to know the Truth of God and his love for us in its fullness and reality. So we will give anything and everything to come to know it more, to come to know him more.

And so I want to be in these safe arms.