Heaven Help Us

For ten years I owned a Christian Bookstore named Heaven Help Us. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about that place or miss it. When I opened my store I had no idea it would become something more than a place to sell Bibles, books, and Christian items. Oh, but that store was much more.

Our check out counter became a counseling desk. A place to ask questions for guidance and for prayers. We made friends, so many friends. The customers would wave when they saw us out somewhere. Our employees were beloved and became family. Such good people I was surrounded with to share Jesus and my week, and of course my parents.

One day there was a motorcycle accident on the corner near our store. The young man staggered into our store with the big blue “Christian Bookstore” sign in the window. He had bypassed others for us. Dad immediately went into help mode. Apparently the man’s wife didn’t want him to get a motorcycle and told him not to call home if anything happened. The poor guy took her at her word and would not call. After a trip to immediate care with Dad and then a call home proved the wife did not mean those words at all. She gladly came to retrieve her tattered hubby.

Do you have a safe place? A place you can go to when things go terribly wrong and someone will always be there to help? Just like my Dad helped a young man he had never met, you have Someone to help you. Maybe you have met Him, maybe not. Jesus is always there to help. He will listen to our problems. Don’t be like the husband afraid to call his wife thinking she didn’t want to talk to him because he did something wrong. She was happy to hear from him. Abba will be glad to hear from you, too.

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Psalm 46:1