snug as a bug

Did your mother or father ever tuck you into bed at night? I can still remember the occasions when my mother would come in with me and put me in bed, tucking the bedding along my sides and under my feet until I was in a cocoon of comfort, all safe and warm. Snug as a bug in a rug indeed!

The worst thing that could happen then was to realize I needed to go to the bathroom! Once I got up, it didn't matter how hard I tried to redo the snug tight tucks that my mother had so recently performed; I simply could not recreate the sense of security and comfort my mother had done so effortlessly with love.

Reading in my Bible, I came across the following verse in Psalm 139:
You hem me in—behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty to attain."

Wow. Even as adults, we have a loving Father who puts a hedge of protection around us. We humans (this one in particular) are such silly things. We worry and worry, though God tells us that no man has added a single hour to his life by worrying. (Matt 6:27) But does that stop us? noooo. . . we keep having to get out of the snug bed. And then, of course, we pull and tug at the sheets and complain to God, "why I am I so uncomfortable, why aren't my sheets all tucked in nice and tight? Where are you God?"

God must get tired of repeating, "Concentrate on now, tomorrow will worry about itself." (v. 34)

Life can blow the sheets of our "bed" so to speak. Then we really get into a tizzy. "O.K. God, I am concentrating on NOW. And NOW is not going very well!"

But He is there still, His hand is upon us, His grace sufficient to meet our needs. His protection is there, though it may not be at the level to which our human comforts desire. But doesn't he always come in, when we think we are at the end of our strength of endurance and swoop us up, lay us in a warm safe place and tuck us in tight again?

Time and again, He has done this in my life. I abhor my humanness; that time after time I will still cry out "Why is this happening? Where are you?" instead of seeking and resting in His grace.