Let me abide in Your tent forever, find refuge under the Shelter of Your Wings. Psalm 61:4

For a long period of my life, I believed in God, but did not believe He was for me. He was not a tent, nor a shelter. He was simply an angry God that would be stirred to even greater rage if I took my own life. My faith was a fearful burden, intensified by all the verses in the Bible that supported my twisted image of God. Even the verses of comfort , God's love letters, were not there for me, but for other people who deserved them. This was brought to to the forefront of my mind by a young lady who jumped from a second story railing today. She became me, broken and bleeding on the pavement in another chapter of my life, without hope, not imagining the future. I can see now that we make a mistake when we make God into our own image of Him. He can be terrifying and punishing, or simply a doddering grandpa that hands out candy only to the children he likes. I don't know what image of God that young lady had. I do know
that somehow, even the tiniest pinpricks of hope had left her, and we were faced with her final decision, made in her hopelessness. But true hope lies not in my conceptions or misconceptions about God, but in the truth of His Person. If He says He is a Tent and a Refuge, He is truly a Tent and a Refuge and nothing I can think about Him will change that fact. In this, I am challenged to know God as He is; and my hopelessness will be overcome by His Hope in allowing Him to be Who He is.