Just how secure do you feel these days? If you are like most Americans right now, your answer is probably, “Not very.” Virtually everyone has had one or more of their sources of security spring significant leaks in the recent economic downturn over the last few years. Whether the market value of your home or retirement fund has shriveled, or you are currently un or underemployed, you feel less certain about what the future holds.
And if these types of resource drains aren’t enough, we get reminders frequently of other ways our security can be violated. The security systems of our computers or on line accounts can be hacked into, revealing our personal information to identity thieves. Our debit or credit card numbers can be lifted from ATMs and other card-swiping devices that have been tampered with. The latest target during the holidays is giftcards that have been altered. You buy the card and someone else checks by phone and spends the balance as soon as it becomes available.
Even security systems, long thought virtually invincible, have sprung significant leaks. Currently a quarter of a million classified and top secret US documents have begun infusing the internet, courtesy of Wikileaks. They contain everything from too candid comments about foreign countries and their leaders, to sensitive information about back door agreements between nations and behind the scenes negotiations. Increasingly, it appears that nothing and no one has any degree of security they can count on.
Security leaks are not new. It might surprise you to know that even God Himself has had to deal with a security leak. It happened 2,000 years ago. God had established a plan for a quiet invasion of earth by His Son, Jesus, arriving incognito as a newborn infant. He would be born to two ordinary parents, Joseph and Mary, in a nondescript town, Bethlehem, during a major political event, a national census. He would arrive under the radar and anonymous.
But several dedicated astronomers, read the stellar encryption and knew something monumental was about to take place. They traveled to Judea, the land of Jesus’s birth and created a serious security leak by asking the king, Herod, “Where is the one who has just been born king of the Jews?”
Now tipped off, Herod was upset, as he certainly didn’t want a rival to the throne. As a clever politician, he decided to use the security breach to his advantage. He told the foreign astronomers to return after they found the infant king and disclose his location so he, Herod, could also go and pay homage. But of course Herod had no such intention. He was really planning to kill the child.
The astronomers found Jesus and presented him with costly gifts. But God gave them a disturbing dream, and they decided to leave Judea without reporting back to Herod. Their secret departure gave God time to warn Joseph to take Jesus and Mary and leave Judea altogether. Their costly gifts no doubt financed the journey.
God dealt with this major security leak. He saved Jesus’s life, because after Herod found out he had been duped, he ordered the death of all male infants under 2 years old living in Bethlehem. Satisfied he had eliminated the threat, Herod never realized that Jesus had secretly survived and would live to fulfill His divine mission.
No matter how major your security leaks currently are, God wants to give you a certain future, filled with hope. He can take any situation and turn it around for your benefit. He quietly invaded earth 2000 years ago for this very purpose.
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