Each one will be like a shelter from the wind
and a refuge from the storm,
like streams of water in the desert
and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land.
Isaiah 32:2 NIV
A Hiding Place
The Aux Trois Couvents museum in Quebec stands on the site of three convent schools, with the first being built in 1694. When British officer James Wolfe arrived with his troops in 1759, the convent was evacuated to Montreal. Wolfe’s army sheltered in the convent and church. The local priest hid in the woods and asked two young men to venture down to the village and bring back any news. They opened the door to find themselves face to face with more than a dozen Scottish highlanders pointing muskets at them. The boys fled, making it safely to their hiding place in the woods.
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Jesus’ birth was indicative of the kind of life that would be His. He who was always outside of time, spent nine months in Mary’s womb. He who spent eternity in the perfect splendour of Glory found himself birthed into a cattle trough in the discomfort of a stable. The come-down must have been overwhelming. Throughout His life, He experienced the worst that life on this beautiful, but fallen planet offers – heat and cold, storms and thirst, hunger, loneliness, betrayal, and death. He learned early on that the only hiding place was His time with His Heavenly Father. When Isaiah sees the coming Messiah, the king who will reign in righteousness, this same Jesus, along with the host of heaven, he describes them this way in Isaiah 32:2: “Each one will be like a shelter from the wind and a refuge from the storm, like streams of water in the desert. and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land.” Jesus gets us when we are facing the worst this world can throw at us, and He will always be our shelter and hiding place.
These have been words from the heart.
Bob Beasley