By Jessica Brodie

Are you an animal lover? Perhaps you’re a dog lover or a cat lover (most people are adamantly one or the other!). In my home we have a giant German Shepherd named Captain as well as three cats, Leia, Casper, and our decidedly unique ginger tabby, Finn, who seems to think he’s more a dog than a cat.

My love for animals doesn’t just stop at pets, though. Don’t laugh, but having grown up in Florida, I’ve always adored common lizards. There’s something about their tiny little mouths and their gentle, watchful eyes that tugs at my heart.

Recently, I was with my daughter and some friends of hers who found a baby lizard. They picked the little fellow up and then passed him from hand to hand, marveling at his size and mannerisms.

When he got to me, his poor little body quaked with terror. But after a few moments, as if he decided I was no threat, I saw him visibly begin to relax. His deep breaths began to slow and steady. Finally we made eye contact, being to being, in a moment of gentle connection.

I felt like, at least for a moment, I was his safe place—his refuge. I certainly wanted to be.

Sometimes I feel like that lizard in everyday life. Do you know what I mean? There are days and even years I think my home or my car is a refuge. Maybe I think the health, auto, and life insurance plans I have are going to keep me or my family safe and protected, or the current peace in my community means I’m somehow immune to tragedy. Maybe I think my body won’t fail me or the money in my savings or retirement accounts will provide for all my needs.

But the truth is those are temporary. Only God is my real refuge.

Think about it—if I’m lucky, my body has maybe 100 years on it, but then what? It breaks down, and then it’s done. It’s not meant to last forever. Neither are any of the things of this world. Animals are born and then they die. Trees—even the oldest of them, giant live oaks or massive sequoias—eventually come to an end, whether from fire or other natural disaster or from human hands. Cliffs erode, earthquakes transform vistas, even islands cave into the seas.

And money? That’s certainly temporary. No matter how much we have while we’re alive, we don’t take it with us.

What is eternal is the Lord, period—and if we belong to him, our souls are eternal as well. But that’s only because of God’s great love for us, not because we have any worth or power on our own. He sent us his Son as our savior, and if we choose to believe and follow him, to repent of our sins and become his disciples, we’re guaranteed eternal life, salvation, a place in our Father’s house, a heavenly home forevermore.

God provides that shelter, that refuge. Only God, out of the vast and gracious and merciful love he has for all of us. If we choose him, we live with him forever.

For a moment when I held that baby lizard on that sunshiny afternoon, I was his temporary refuge. But his real refuge is the Lord, just as mine is.

As Psalm 46:1-7 proclaims:

“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day. Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts. The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress” (NIV).

Will you join me in prayer? Dear Heavenly Father, sometimes I look around me and think the things of this world protect me, but they are only an illusion. They are temporary and impermanent. But you, my loving Father God—Abba, Creator of the Universe—are my true refuge. You are my rock and my salvation. You are my forever home. Thank you for loving me enough, for loving all your imperfect children enough, to be that refuge in spite of our shortcomings. Please help me to love you with my whole heart now and forever, and help me to lead others to you as well. In Jesus’s name I pray, Amen.

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