UNDER HIS WINGS

Real feathers—trophies from bird-hunting—graced this Bible verse display given me recently by a friend. As I read the scripture she’d chosen, I thought of how she lived it out in modeling grace through hardship. From the Living Bible she quoted Psalm 36:7:

How precious is your constant love, O God!  All humanity takes refuge in the shadow of Your wings.

It was just perfect for the relational challenges I’ve faced in recent years with troubled people. At times I felt like a little chick scurrying around the scary barnyard while a hungry dog or possum threatened. But when I ran to the Lord—like a hen gathering her chicks underneath her—I felt removed to a place of safety.

This tender image from real life crops up several times in Psalms.

Hide me in the shadow of Your wings. (Psalm 17:8)

I will take shelter in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed. (Psalm 57:1)

I long to dwell in your tent forever and take refuge in the shelter of your wings. (Psalm 61:4)

Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings. (Psalm 63:7)

He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge (Psalm 91:4—from one of my favorite psalms)

Poetic analogies help me visualize the invisible, like the constant presence and help of God. But sometimes I run across real-life examples that match up with such scriptural truths.  I found one recently in book by Charles Stanley, The Source of My Strength (Nelson, 1994). I learned that this well-known pastor and author lost his father when he was very young.  Then his mother married an abusive man. They both endured his physical and verbal abuse. It took a long time for Stanley to work through the wounds of his childhood, but he did. He found shelter under the wings of the Almighty, and that made the difference.

I especially appreciated his practical advice on dealing with an abuser, by focusing attention not on your supposed “faults” (according to the abuser) but on the bitterness and wounds that cause the abuser to lash out (p. 77):

If a person criticizes you intensely, say, “Listen, what it is about me that is really at the core of what you dislike? Do you realize that you are constantly at me about something?  It is because something is eating away at you? Is there something you don’t like about yourself that is behind the way you criticize me?”

…Intervening in a person’s abusive behavior is actually an act of love for that person.  It is saying to that person, ‘I don’t want to see you so violently unhappy.  I want to see you live in a way that is not marked by repetitive abusive behavior—either verbal or physical.  I want to see you become whole in Christ Jesus.’

Instead of trying to reason with an abuser, Stanley said, we need to turn that person over to God to deal with.  That might include saying this to the abuser: “I will no longer take your abuse. I’m trusting God to defend me.  I’m turning you over to Him, and I’m trusting that He will deal with you.”

I’ve been through some tough stuff in my life, always at the ready to “fix things.”  But some things only God can “fix,” like troubled minds. That’s when He beckons me, like a protective mother hen, under His wings. It’s safe and warm there as He faces what only He can—and should—handle.