13 An angel of the Lord appeared
to Joseph in a dream and said,
“Get up, take the child and
his mother, and flee to Egypt,
and remain there until I tell you;
for Herod is about to search
for the child, to destroy him.”
14 Then Joseph got up, took
the child and his mother by night,
and went to Egypt
Matthew 2
Today’s sign is fresh on my mind because we just had four hurricane “refugees” at my house. As a hurricane was bearing down on the South Carolina coast, two sons and their two pregnant wives (plus a dog) headed to our inland home for refuge.
It was interesting hearing how they plotted how to travel. With a mandatory evacuation of a major city, the roads were going to be full. “Fill up with gas before you go,” warned the radio headlines. “You might get stuck in stand-still traffic and you don’t want to get stranded.”
One son left a day early and chose to travel at odd hours – to hopefully miss the bulk of traffic. It worked. Relatively smooth sailing.
The other son’s job forced him to leave later. In a busier crowd, he picked a maze of back roads for his escape route. It worked too. Relatively painless travel.
In life there are hurricanes. There are trials. And temptations. And pain … and grief … and confusion.
Sometimes the trials and temptations of life come with a little bit of warning. Nowadays, with satellites and radar, hurricanes are like that. Thousands of lives are spared because we have adequate warning and make wise preparation.
Therefore, whenever the dark clouds in life approach, this is your warning sign, and it’s wise to have an evacuation plan! You know what the warning signs and temptations are for you, right? You know when you’re generally vulnerable, don’t you?
Sometimes, all it takes to stay free is to follow the blue road signs that say, “This way to safety.”
This is like following conventional wisdom. And we can be spared a lot of pain in life by simply asking “What is the wise thing to do?” and then doing it!
But other times, the disasters in life strike without much or any warning at all. Tornados and earthquakes are like this. One minute all is well. The next … rubble.
How can we avoid this? Well, I listened to a young man recently who told why he moved home to the Carolinas. He’d been living for a few years in “Tornado Alley.” His house was on tops of a hill. He could see for miles to the west – the direction from which storms tend to approach. When he watch the fifth tornado sweep through the valley, he finally got wise: “I don’t have to live here anymore!”
Now, not everybody can choose where they live. Obviously, not everyone is fleeing tornado alley or the San Andreas Fault. Nevertheless, it’s not a bad plan! Indeed, that was God the Father’s recommendation to the Holy Family. When Herod sought to kill the Christ child, they weathered the tornado of Herod’s rage by relocating to Egypt.
Spiritually, emotionally, and psychologically your evacuation route for many of life’s trials may be to simply move away. To stay away completely from whatever tempts you. To avoid the drama and the trials by not even being around them!
What are you seeking to be free from? What is your evacuation route? Today? Every day?
In Christ’s Love,
a guy who remembers
the evacuation from a raging
forest fire. barrelling down on us
(because everyone was calm,
We all slowly but orderly made it out.
Panic would have caused disaster.
It’s wise to be wise and calm
and plan in advance!)
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