If you ever have a chance to inspect a map of the USA, especially New England, you’ll quickly notice how familiar some of the place names are. Cambridge, Portsmouth, Manchester, York – I’m sure we could quite easily point these places out on a map of the U.K. A little bit more difficult when they’re in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Maine.

Why did the early settlers in America name their towns after places in England? After all, wasn’t England the place where they were fleeing from? Wouldn’t it make more sense to name these places something entirely different? A new home with a new name.

Perhaps having some kind of familiarity, even if it was memories of a place that you were glad to have left, was really quite important. In a situation where changing your mind and returning to where you came from would involve a sea voyage of weeks or months, your options were limited.

It is human nature to go back to what you know. From ordering the same meal in a restaurant, to rewatching a much loved film, to sitting every week in the same pew in church. We are not just creatures of habit, we feel a sense of safety with the familiar.

I wonder though if we see God as being safe? And if we do, is this a fair understanding?

In ‘The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe’, CS Lewis writes of a meeting between the four children, who are the heroes of the book, and a Mr & Mrs Beaver who describe what the titular Lion is like.

‘Is he safe’? Asks one of the four children.

‘Safe?’ Comes the reply, ‘..Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.’

For Lewis, the Lion represents Jesus, and this line could just as easily be written about him, because although there is absolutely safety in the arms of God, that doesn’t make God ‘safe’.

But following him is the most rewarding, life affirming, life fulfilling choice we can make.

(July 2016)