Don't Worry; I'll Keep You Safe

When the weather is nice, not too hot and not too cold, and not particularly windy, rainy or snowy,  I get off the bus several stops early on my way to work and walk the rest of the way to the office. I pass by the headquarters of the American Red Cross and then I walk across 17th Street and hang a left.  That intersection serves as an entrance to the White House and there are always Secret Service agents manning the gate.  Typically, I simply nod and smile or say good morning and they return the greeting.  One day last week, however, our interaction was a bit different and I can't stop thinking about it.  

After I crossed 17th street, I needed to walk in front of the guard shack that leads to the White House entrance, but a series of black SUV's with tinted windows were pulling through the gate one after another.  I stood still, waiting, not sure whether to cross in between the vehicles or wait.  I eventually took a tentative step forward and the young Secret Service agent who was standing outside the guard shack looked me square in the eye, smiled and said, "Go right ahead.  Don't worry; I'll keep you safe."  He wasn't being patronizing and he certainly wasn't flirting. He was 100% sincere.  He saw my apprehension and he reassured me.  And I believed him.  I stepped into the fray and crossed as he kept a watchful eye and the SUVs at bay.  I walked the rest of the way to work that day with a lightness that I hadn't felt previously.  It is reassuring to know that there are people who will stand in the gap for you, stare down the danger and take it on for you so that you can get where you need to go safely. It made me grateful for public servants of all kinds: police officers, military personnel, firefighters, and the like.  More than that, it made me thankful for my God.  


If someone wanted to run me down in their car that day, they could have.  I don't know if the Secret Service agent could have stopped them or not, but he was willing to take responsibility for getting me safely from where I was to where I was headed and that is a very God-like thing to do. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend," John 15:13 KJV.  He was willing to take the burden of my safety upon himself, assuring that I would get to the other side in one piece, and I let him.  
Meanwhile, my God offers to take the responsibility for the eternal safety of my soul upon Himself and when I let Him, no one and nothing can ever harm me... not the real me, not the eternal me.  I will most assuredly reach my final destination. "And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one." John 10:28-30 KJV.  That sounds an awful lot to me like the ultimate, "Don't worry; I'll keep you safe."  And I believe Him.

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