Night-Night

I thought after I graduated college I would be a grown-up. Seeing as I am living with my mom right now and watching cartoons while I write this, I guess I have not quite reached the grown-up stage. Living at home has reminded me of when I was a child, and I share some of those stories now

When I was little I had a security blanket. It was not a quilt made by my grandmother, or anyone else dear to me. It didn't have a cartoon character on it. In fact it was not a blanket at all. My security blanket was a diaper rag. I didn't even call it blankey, or anything that resembles blanket. My security blanket (rag) went by the affectionate name of Night-Night and we went everywhere together. Watching TV, sitting in the cart at the grocery store, sleeping in the crib, going to day-care, you know all the normal places a two year old might go. One evening my mother and father went out to dinner and I went with them, so obviously Night-Night came with. I'm sure it was a lovely evening. I don't really remember it, I was two. Anyway, after dinner we all loaded up in the car and started for home. It wasn't long before I noticed something was wrong: my Night-Night was missing! In the next few moments my very short life flashed before my eyes and my entire world seemed to shatter around me as everything I knew to be true and right was slipping away. My incessant crying, and my mother, forced my father to turn the car around and retrieve that diaper rag. The restaurant staff may have thought it was a dish rag and used it to clean off the table, but I was never happier than when I held that filthy tattered cloth in my arms again.

A few years later my security blanket changed. Actually it was many years later, and I was 11 or 12. My new security blanket was once again not a blanket, it was a monkey. I wish I could tell you that it was a real live pet monkey, but it wasn't. It was a small stuffed animal that usually resided in my pocket for most of the fifth grade. Like the Night-Night, Monkey went everywhere with me. I do mean everywhere. Church, school, to a friend's house, everywhere. There is a picture of the Mawhirter children in the blue bonnets and monkey is right there with me. Embarrassing I know. It gets better. One horrible day the family was at my aunt's house and I had to use the restroom; of course monkey was along for the ride. I set monkey down on the top of the toilet while I did my business, because obviously that is the best place to put a stuffed animal you take to the bathroom with you. When I flushed the toilet I reached for my dear pall Monkey and knocked him into the toilet. With a faint gurgle, monkey was sucked down the pipes, and I never saw him again.

Some parts of those story may be a little over the top and slightly exaggerated, but hold truth none-the-less. I think everyone has a security blanket. It may not be an old smelly rag, or a small monkey, but we have them all the same. My Night-Night, and my monkey, made me feel safe, made me feel comfortable. No matter where I was, or what was going on, I felt secure. As a child so many things lie beyond our control, and we desperately need to know that we are safe. I think we all long for that feeling of safety and security, to know that no matter what things will be ok. But the problem is we settle for just the feeling of security instead of the real thing. How often do we surround ourselves with things that make us feel important or powerful; things that as long as we have them we will be secure? Have you ever thought: As long as I have money things will be ok; As long as I have my friends around, I'll be fine; As long as we stay together, things will be ok; As long as I have my family, I'm ok; As long as I have this job I'm golden; If this, as long as that, yada yada yada. Like my Night-Night and Monkey, we cling to so many things, and those things never really last all that long. We lose the job, people move, relationships break up, our money is stolen or lost. Our security ends up getting left in a restaurant or sucked down the toilet and we never see it again.

So why do we have this desire, this longing for security? It seems wrong to have such a desire that always ends unfulfilled. The desire starts out good, but is twisted when we try to become the source of our own security. Thats when it fails. This desire is within us to lead us to something greater, lead us to true security.

Where to find true security is revealed to us in scripture. Psalm 91 says: Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”

Then the writer goes on to explain what happens after putting our security in God: no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent. “Because he loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”

According to these verses security is found, once we surrender it, when we give it up to something greater than ourselves. True security is found when we call on God, not on our own resources. What if we lived like this was true? Our desire to find security is not wrong, embrace it and let it lead you to the one who lifts you up in the hands of angels.