Caves

Dear Boys and Girls,

Have you ever been in a cave? A cave is cool and sheltered. It hides you from the wind, rain, and hot sun. What a relief it can be to find some shade on a hot day. People have also found shelter in a cave during a blizzard. There, they could safely wait out the storm and not be buried or lost.

There have also been times when caves were used as a hiding place from enemies. When people were persecuted for being Christians, they sometimes fled to the mountains and lived in caves until the soldiers were gone. There was once a small family, just a mother and her son and little daughter, who were fleeing. The soldiers wanted to capture them for having a Bible and believing in the only truth of God. The mother was sick and could barely take another step. Yet they had to keep going; the soldiers were looking for them. They had very little time left. The soldiers were surely going to overtake them. However, the mother could not go on.

Suddenly, the boy saw a rabbit disappear into the steep rock wall next to the path. The small animal simply vanished. The boy discovered a crack in the rock. That is where the rabbit had gone. The boy left the path and squeezed through the cleft. Soon, he was back, his eyes wide with wonder. “Come on!” he motioned, and he pulled his mother by the arm. Soon, all three had disappeared through the crack. Shrubs and bushes hid the narrow opening from view, and the little family found themselves in a small valley with caves around its edge. They were safe. Who had sent that rabbit, do you think?

There is another story of a man who was running as fast as he could from soldiers who were chasing him. The man had escaped from his house as the soldiers arrived, ready to arrest him for being a Christian. Terrible things happened to those who wanted to serve God in the right way. The soldiers followed him, and they were hot on his trail. Any moment now, they would overtake the man and capture him. The man was running over rocks and boulders in a very rocky area. Suddenly, the ground gave way underneath him, and he found himself falling. He fell into a small cave under the rocks, and no one could see him. It was as if the earth had just swallowed him up. The soldiers ran right past the hidden hole, and the man was safe. God had kept him.

The Lord provided these hiding places. The Lord also provides a much greater and better hiding place. This is a hiding place for souls who are in danger. They are in danger because enemies such as sin and the devil are attacking them. They are in danger because they will perish if they do not receive a Saviour as their God. They are weary and distressed and need a place to rest safely. They are travelers and need shelter.

Where are they traveling? Well, they have become strangers on this earth. They sing, “I am a stranger here; dependent on Thy grace; a pilgrim, as my fathers were, with no abiding place.” They do not love the world with all their hearts anymore, nor do they love themselves the most. No, they love God because He first loved them. They long to serve the Lord, and they need Him to shelter them. If they are found in Him, they will no longer have to go lost forever in hell. Sometimes they travel very slowly, but they are on the way, on the way to the city of the King Jesus.

There are many dangers on the way. They need what Isaiah writes: “And a Man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land” (Isaiah 32.2). Who is this Man that is a hiding place? That is Jesus Christ, the Son of God who is both God and Man. He is the only safe place for a needy heart.

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