Sanctuary

Tell the exiles, “This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Although I have scattered you in the countries of the world, I will be a sanctuary to you during your time in exile.”

Ezekiel 11:16

No matter where life takes us, God is our sanctuary. A place of refuge as well as of worship. A place to dwell and be at home: “Lord, through all the generations you have been our home!” (Psalm 90:1) and “If you make the LORD your refuge, if you make the Most High your shelter, no evil will conquer you; no plague will come near your home” (Psalm 91:9-10).

God comes back to this theme over and over, driving home the point. You can’t find a location on earth where God is not your refuge and home. You are always at home because home is where your heart is. Even if you are trying to escape him, you can’t find a place where God is not fully present. Maybe someone you love is away from you. Maybe you don’t even know where that one is, and your heart aches with the pain of separation and uncertainty. Let these words bring comfort to you. God is where you cannot be:

I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! . . . If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me.

Psalm 139:7, 9-10

You are never out of God’s presence, and those you love and long to protect are never out of his presence either.

Thank you, Father, that you are always my home and my refuge. Thank you that those I love and for whose restoration I pray cannot find a place on the planet where you are not.

We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade, the presence of God.

C. S. Lewis(1898–1963), Irish novelist, literary critic, and essayist