Safe harbour

A couple of years ago, I visited Cornwall in a great storm. The bay became a cauldron of white water. Even high on the cliff, the spray stung our faces and Trevor had to help me stand in the buffeting wind. Yet ships within the harbour stayed safe.

One of the challenges of bereavement for me is my change of identity. Lots of the things that made me secure have gone – my role at church, my marital status, the presence of Trev to hold me up. So I love this picture by my friend Camilla, a reminder that I am safe in harbour, utterly secure, even when the storm rages around me. 

When I married Trevor in 1991, we chose Romans 5 as our passage. It was an unusual wedding choice because it acknowledges suffering and the sermon that day addressed the reality that tough stuff happens.  John Hughes preached and I vividly remember him explaining Romans 5 verse 2, “We have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand” and telling us that the Greek translated as gaining access is the same word used for a ship coming safe into harbour.

What makes you feel secure? If it isn’t eternal, it isn’t secure. God wants to harbour us in an identity built with walls of grace, founded on his undeserved love.

In a stormy world, here is a safe harbour - by sheer grace, God commits to forgive us, to comfort every bewildered heart and to anchor us in hope.

 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. Romans 5:5

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With thanks to Camilla Field whose beautiful Fieldnotes are produced in aid of Mind and Soul Foundation - www.fieldnote.co.uk