2 Thessalonians 3:3

³ But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one.

When I was in grade school, oh, maybe a hundred years ago, we had crossing guards. I wanted to be a crossing guard, and have all the special treatment they received. They left class a few minutes before everyone else to ‘man their post’. Plus, you wore that very cool vest, and had a whistle! Of course, you had to be on your best behavior-all the time, mind all your p’s and q’s, do your homework…ALL the time, pay attention in class, and generally just be, well, a ‘teacher’s pet’ to be rewarded with that position. I never got chosen for it! I was too easily distracted, too much of a day dreamer, and I never tried to be the teacher’s pet! Oh well.

Guards in any setting in our lives should be the ones who pay attention and do not get distracted easily. Just like the child guarding the outfield for any stray balls that fly by, you need to be attentive. A couple of years ago I saw first hand what happens when you are a distracted guard. My grandson, then around 5 years old, had his turn to guard the outfield in his softball game. He stood attentively, for maybe a minute. The girl also guarding the outfield caught his attention and he walked over to her and began a conversation. She obliged, and soon the two were engaged in a very deep five year old chat. I watched as the batter from the other team hit the ball right to my grandson. Coach was yelling to him, I was calling him, the ball went right over his head as he continued his chatter. Of course, it became a home run for the other team.

This was not a serious lack of attention to being the guard for a softball game when kid’s just learning, but in another situation, lack of attention was very serious! Not long ago friends of ours had a home invasion. A mentally ill man broke into their home and had a plan to steal, kill and destroy. Well, you know who does that! Somehow their the 90 pound Labrador retriever gave a bark and awakened the home owners, then ignored the perpetrator! The perp felt no fear of this animal who could have done some damage to him. Not a good guard dog!

Of course there are many other guards that work very well. We have a guard gate at our stairs to keep kids from falling. Football players wear mouth guards to protect those pearly white teeth. The president has security guards that are expected to take the hit for him. We watched that in action when President Reagan was shot at, and his security guard, Timothy McCarthy stepped in the way of the shot, and took six shots to protect the president. He fully recovered from that injury.

All of these are human guards and have limitations. The President still got shot, even with guards all around him. Children will still fall down stairs, and teeth will break. But….there is a guard that will not ever fail. He is not only faithful, and pays attention, but he is fearless and never misses his opportunity to guard his children, of course this the Lord! He knows the beginning from the end, the past, present and our future. Because of His knowledge He can guard us perfectly! Even when we don’t see a problem coming our way, He guards us from it. Think for a moment when your trip has been delayed and you find out there was an accident on you path, that could have been you. There are many ways the Lord guards us from our arch enemy that only wants to steal, kill and destroy us so we end up in hell with him.

Think about your life for a few minutes. Think about the times when you had a near miss. Who guarded you from it? Think about the time when you had clear sailing. Who protected you so you could enjoy it? Give your ‘Guard God’ a shout out of praise for His continuing faithfulness guarding you!