I woke up extra early this morning thinking about trees. Don't ask me why.  And then my thinking about trees reminded me of a time without trees.

I attended West Texas A&M for a year of college. I was baffled at its flat, treeless landscape. I felt vulnerable there, out in the unprotected open.

I remember arriving with my parents,  and unloading our suburban. We carried my clothes and other belongings up echoing flights of stairs.  A tornado came through while my parents were there to move me in. We were caught unaware and had to park under an overpass while the sirens blared. But pass it did. And then they left.

That was a scary time.
Yes, the tornado, but also that entire year being subject to frightening new stuff. There were scary knowns and unknowns, like the unsupervised snake in the dorm hallway and the smell of incense used to cover up things I'd never been exposed to before. Then there was the girl who tried to shoplift at Gadzooks while I was with her at the mall until I promised her that I would tell the clerk.  Let's not forget the first few fire alarms in the middle of the night that suggested there was a real fire (before I figured out they were pulled "for fun").

Jason was attending the same school, but football and my classes and job schedule kept us both busy.  Still we traveled the grueling four-hundred miles home, dirty clothes in tow, every time we could. Because being home felt secure.  It still feels that way.

Safe and inviting; it's a place where oak trees stand taller than my problems.   It's a place I can always go to; a place where my father is.

I've lived on both sides of this vast state; and both places are far from the oak trees that overhang the place where I grew.  It's hard to get back to that place I love so dearly; that safe and sound place I know.  But it's at that home where I learned of a place I can always run to; a place to abide in fearful times and when danger is near. This place isn't identified through geographic coordinates.  It can be ran to, by simply being small and still.

The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous runs into it and is safe. Proverbs 18:10