Up On the Mantle

First we had dogs. Dogs who would take valuable things and chew them up (in preference to the chew toys we'd purchased for them, of course). A cell phone, a wedding picture frame, flip flops--the list is a long one. So our mantle became the "Safe Place" on which we'd place things that we didn't want the dogs to destroy.

Now it's not so much the dogs, but our kids who get into things. And sometimes we're in the middle of a task so we need certain things to be accessible, but still out of harm's reach (and by HARM I mean our kiddos). Because they try to take pictures with my camera. They try to "fix things" with Justin's screwdrivers. They like to draw with the Sharpie pen I'm using to label things. And so to keep things safe, we put them up on the mantle until we're able to put them away.

This morning I was reading in Proverbs 29, and saw "Whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe" (verse 25). I love looking at the original Hebrew to see what things mean, and in this verse the word safe (sagab) means:

BE SET ON A HIGH PLACE. EXALTED. DEFENDED.

I had this picture of all the things in this world that come against us, that threaten to devour, destroy, and use us. But as we TRUST IN THE LORD, He reaches down, takes hold of us, and we are
PUT ON A HIGH PLACE.
EXALTED.
DEFENDED.

kept safe.