Psalm 121:5-8 (NIV) The Lord watches over you—the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all harm—he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.

I was recently at the beach with my grandchildren and I found out that they all love to be in the water. This is especially true of my grandson, Gabriel, who is four years old. From the moment that we got to the beach to the time that we left, he spent ALL of the time in the water. That meant no rest for me as I was busy being vigilant about his safety. There were signs warning swimmers about the riptides that could show up when conditions are a certain way. Riptides are rogue currents that can drag you out into the ocean very quickly. Knowing this and also knowing that Gabriel didn't know how to swim yet, I parked myself in front of him, just deep enough where it was about waist high to his body. He would play in the water, sometimes engaging with me and sometimes being oblivious to the fact that I was there watching over him. When he would wander toward danger (there were some rocks in the water on either side of him), I would call out to him to come back in line with me. If a rogue current would come, it would carry him straight into me. I never took my eyes off of him. It was quite exhausting, but I was determined that nothing was going to happen to my grandson on my watch.

While I was doing that, the Lord brought to my mind that that's exactly what He does with me all day and every day. It brought tears to my eyes to realize that as hard as I was concentrating on keeping my eyes fixed on my grandson for his safety, Jesus never takes His eyes off of me, not even for one second and He doesn't get exhausted doing it. There is the story in the Bible of when Jesus instructed the disciples to get on a boat to cross the Sea of Galilee without Him while He stayed back to pray. They ran into a violent storm and as they were straining at the oars of the boat, the Word of God tells us that Jesus was watching them from the land (Mark 6:45-48). Even while He was praying and physically separated from them, He never took His eyes off of them.

In the same way, Jesus is watching over you and He never takes His eyes off of you. While I can watch my grandson vigilantly for a few hours, I can't watch him all the time. I can't come close to that kind of care, but Jesus can. That's why you can take heart no matter what you are facing or what situation you find yourself in. Trust Jesus and rest in Him, because He is not only watching over you but is poised and ready to rescue you and to keep you safe and secure until you are safely home in heaven with Him.

Pastor Joey Vazquez