When Risk Isn't Risky (Ukraine Is Safe)

 When I was a young teen, I enjoyed playing a particular board game.

Perhaps you recognize this snippet? Yes, we regularly invaded Ukraine as children. But no matter who won or lost, we were always having fun. It was only a game, after all.

The battle over Ukraine being fought today is anything but fun. It's a human tragedy on a mind-boggling scale. This blog post is not meant in any way to minimize the horrific suffering happening even as I write these words.

So much for the big difference. Pastime vs Panic. Play vs Real.

But there's one thing in common that I thought I would just jot down as a reminder to self and a prayer for the citizens of Ukraine. We who belong to Christ are not citizens of this world.

We played Risk as kids but when the board game was folded up and put away, we found ourselves where we had been the entire time. Safe at home.

So too, today in Ukraine. Not all have this hope. I pray this hope for them. But many in Ukraine belong to God. They are, even as I write this, safe at home. Even as they daily face (and some experience) death.

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. ... All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one...

Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them...

 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.”

Excerpted from Hebrews 11, 12