Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“For you have been a refuge to the poor, a refuge to the needy in their distress, a shelter from the rainstorm and a shade from the heat.”
NL Daily Devotion for Wednesday, November 24, 2021
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
As a kid, I always wanted to build tents in the backyard. I was forever asking my mom if we had old sheets (we didn’t), forever scouting around for big branches in the neighborhood and taking my blankets outside even though I knew my mom wouldn’t be happy about it. I fantasized about surviving in the wild, and I wanted to build myself a refuge—a place of shelter and protection. Just thinking about that gives me warm fuzzies, honestly. There is something so comforting about crawling into a cozy space and feeling protected from the outside world.
I write a lot in these devotions about God calling us out into the world, exhorting us to act in the cause of justice. But sometimes It’s good and right and necessary to take shelter from the world, to regroup and restore. I imagine God’s sheltering arms like a hug, like a mother hen with her wings over her chicks, and I am grateful for the time to just be in God’s presence, so that I’m ready to go back out into the world when the time is right.
How is God a refuge for me in my life?
![1 Kings 17:1-16 [17-24], God’s Care for the Widow](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56b39b61ab48de92d991a40a/bf37035e-33d5-439f-a0d6-a68b02d0f1bc/24-11-03.jpg)
