The Choo-Choo Blanket

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35-39 ESV).

Each of our boys has had a “security blanket” of some sort when they were little. Our oldest son, who now is thirty-seven and a Ph.D. pharmacological research scientist, had a small blanket that accompanied him nearly everywhere until he was about two. We called it the "choo-choo blanket” because it had a little train on it. Over the years it frayed and unraveled along the edges and Mary repaired it as best as possible. Each time, however, it became a smaller blanket! Finally, it was not much more than the size of a large bandanna. As he grew he didn’t need his baby blanket any longer and it was soon forgotten and put away.

There was one occasion that we unintentionally left it at a motel. You would have thought the world had come to an end! We did retrieve it and life returned to normal. He had to have his choo-choo. As I reflected on that experience, it occurred to me that many of us, maybe all of us, have a blanket of our own. Not literally, of course. But we're all pretty attached to something or someone that we really, really need. It is that something or someone that defines, to a significant extent, who we are. Unfortunately, there comes a time in all our lives when we can't hang onto that blanket anymore. Sometimes, it's literally stripped from our hands.

For some of us, our job, our career, our title is an important security blanket. We don't realize how much of who we are what we do until one day it's taken from us. Your strength or your health may be your security blanket, and you may work pretty hard at keeping it. But it can be lost suddenly. Maybe it's your looks, your wealth, your ability, your family, or a person who is a big part of who you are. A security blanket can be something very good but losable. And when things beyond your control tear your blanket from your hands, you're left wondering, as you may be right now, who am I without it? I guess the great myth is that anything or anyone we can lose can ever give us ultimate security. There is always this gnawing fear that it won't be there someday. We're created for a security that always will be there even when every other security blanket is gone. Well, that rock-solid security is defined for us in our reading for today. There it is unloseable love, security beyond the reach of every disease, downsizing, divorce, depression, or disaster. When Jesus Christ died on the cross so the sin-wall between you and God could come down forever, He made it possible for you to know you belong to God, to never live a moment here or in eternity without being loved by Him. If you've lost a security you were depending on, it may be so you could finally realize how much you need Jesus. And this could be your day, your moment to finally put your total trust in Him. Get your “choo-choo” back!