Surrounded

I grew up on the South Side of Chicago. My family had moved there from Michigan while my father completed graduate school. After finishing, my parents decided to settle there and bought a house. They decided that it was in my sister and my best interest to attend one of the Magnet school's that the City of Chicago was offering. This required us to be bussed from our neighborhood to the school location. Because of our test results, we attended different schools. My sister attended a school that had a plethora of ethnicities and I attended a school where I was the only African American girl. There were 3 African American boys there as well, they were brothers. I was 9 years old, had just decided to follow Jesus, learned to play the clarinet, and made many friends there at that school.

Because I was a bussed student, I did not leave the school grounds during lunch. During the lunch break, my friends taught me how to do gymnastics on the balance bars and I taught them how to jump double dutch rope. During that time period, the corner store was the most exciting place in most neighborhoods throughout the city and my friends wanted to share their neighborhood store with me. These stores were famous for having tons of inexpensive candies and snacks. My friends didn't understand why it seemed their parents and neighbors didn't like me very much but they wanted me to go. They made a plan, they would surround me as we left the school grounds to go to the Corner Store so that I would be protected from the adults in the neighborhood. I was convinced that it would be safe because no one would bother them (per my friends). It turns out they were right and we were successful! We went, bought candy, and made it back!

Within the last 5 years, I learned that my grandfather had a very similar experience. He worked for a Tool and Die Company in Michigan in the early 1960s and had received a promotion to have a skilled labor job. Many of his co-workers were quite angry at this development. But like me, he had some really good friends of their same nationality that wanted to make sure that he was safe coming to and from work that they surrounded him for a few weeks to make sure that he was protected. I don't know where the courage came from in me or in my grandfather to continue to go forward even though there were people that were against the idea.

This reminds me of Elisha in 2 Kings Chapter 6. Here Elisha served the king of Israel and the Lord used him on many occasions to keep him safe from one of his enemies. This king kept making plans to trap the king of Israel but it would always fall through. He finally asked one of his servants, how is the king of Israel evading his efforts and he told them that Elisha was informing him of what he would say in his sleep. (It was the Lord of course who allowed Elisha to know these things). So the king set his sites on Elisha to kill him. He had a large army and went to the city where Elisha was in the night to sneak upon him. They surrounded the city. In the morning, Elisha and his servant saw that they were surrounded and his servant was very afraid. Elisha told him not to worry that there were more with them than against them. His servant was confused because what he saw was a very large and strong army. Elisha asked the Lord to open his eyes and when he did, he saw a much bigger and mightier army that had them surrounded them!!

How many times are we walking around completely unaware of the dangers around us? Or maybe we think we are aware of what is going on and we've got things covered? The scripture tells us that we don't wrestle with people really but with powers, and rulers of darkness... things we can't see. The scripture also tells us that the enemy throws darts at us (Ephesians 6:16) and uses strategies against us (Eph. 6:11). The Apostle Paul says that we walk by faith and not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7). The Lord woke me up early yesterday morning and reminded me of how He has been surrounding me throughout my life. I've had situations where plots were planned that I knew nothing of and things didn't go as planned. There was even the question asked, "Who is helping you?" I didn't even know that I was in danger, I simply said, Jesus? It just so happened, that that was completely the case. So many times we try to control our destiny and make all of the precautions that we can to preserve our way of life or our actual lives. But nothing is really in our control. The scripture says it is impossible to please the Lord without faith. I am encouraged that He surrounds me whether I can see what is coming or not. Yes, I know the word He, indicates singular. The author of Hebrews tells us that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses who had seen God's hand in their lives and they continued in faith until their time on this Earth was up. I want to be counted in that number. One of those who just kept walking, knowing the Lord was with me. Knowing that I am surrounded. And if you are a follower of Christ, so are you.