Safety Zone

Saturday started out with a Women's Christmas Tea at the church for Vicky. Soon after the kids and I were off to watch Jacob play basketball. He is on a winter 3rd grade league and I am one of 3 assistant coaches. They basically practice and learn skills 3 hours a week and will play in one or two tournaments next Spring. Lately, Julia has been on a kick to change her clothes to see how many outfits she can wear in a day. So while at the gym, I shouldn't have been so surprised to look over and see Julia with her shoes and socks off and starting to test out whether she should take her shirt off or not. I quickly went over and convinced her the better choice was to put her clothes back on. Abbie said to me, "I'll watch her for you, Dad!".

The afternoon brought some board game time with the kids. A favorite one for them is Sorry!. I can vividly remember growing up playing this game with my Grandma Schneider. She always had unique games like Waterworks, Touring, SkipBo, and others. She was always ready to play games with us.

We sprawled out on the floor, chose up colors, and shuffled the deck. Everything was going fine until about half way into the game when Julia had enough of being "sorried", by Abbie, and having her pawns returned to the 'start'. She reached over and in one swoop, relocated 6 pawns and half the deck under the couch. As you can imagine, the others did not appreciate her actions and as their 'world' was coming to an end, I quickly called 'do over' and got them back on track. I explained to Julia that her turn at returning the 'sorry' favor would be coming with the pick of the right card and that she needed to get her pawns into the 'safety zone' as quick as possible. In the 'safety zone', no harm can come to your pawn. Even though you are not all the way 'home' yet, your pawn is still safe from the all the action around the perimeter of the board. Jacob ended up winning the game, Julia was second, Abbie was third, and I came in a 'peacekeeping' last.

As I later thought about that 'safety zone' function of the game, I was reminded of how true that is with being a child of God. The second we accept His free gift of salvation through Christ, we are whisked away into His 'safety zone' with our names written into the Book of Life, and eternally safe.

But His safety zone is a little different than my safety zone. I would rather be inside that area on the board where no harm can come and nothing but smooth sailing in to home. He leaves us in this imperfect world, on the perimeter of the board, where the 'sorries' of life come and send us back to the start or we go backward instead of forward. But there is also much joy along the way as well, such as family, work, hobbies, using our talents, and exploring His creation. He leaves us on the 'board' so we can experience all of these things to prepare us for our eternal state as well as to show others the way to the 'safety zone'

There is much joy in knowing that there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God and being in His 'safety zone'.

"As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Rom. 8v36-39 ESV