Good Word Friday Theme: Fear Not

It’s Dec. 22, 2017, and I’m driving at night on a lonely stretch of rural highway between Arizona and California with a dark, star-sprinkled sky spread before me. All of a sudden, something bright appears way up high. It’s a dot of light like a star but much bigger. It’s just about the brightest thing I’ve ever seen — and it’s moving. It’s slicing a slow arc across the sky, leaving an impossibly bright tail, which diffuses into a ghostly ribbon of light.

It is an awful sight — full of mysterious beauty but also profound confusion. Is it a missile? A meteor?

I call my husband who is driving a separate car. He’s on the same desolate road just ahead of me. “Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” I ask him.

His reaction: Wowwwwwwwwwwwwww!

My reaction: What in the world is this?! Is it dangerous?! Should I pull over?!

Turns out it was a rocket launch, the Space X Falcon 9. Totally planned. Completely explained. Phew.

When was the last time you saw a phenomenon of nature that freaked you out?

How about the earth opening up right beneath you. A mountain hurling itself into the ocean. Raging waves that shake the land under your feet.

Those are the wonders described in today’s psalm. The writer is telling us that even the most terrifying of earthly events cannot make us fear for our souls. Fear for our lives? Yes. But our souls? No.

We don’t know what trouble the future holds. Let’s not face it like people who have no refuge or help — or salvation.

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.” (Psalm 46:1-3)

This article has undergone ministry review and approval.