Fear is that blind, unreasoning dread that we are ultimately alone in the universe. Thrust from the security of the womb into an unknown, untested vacuum, we are immediately bombarded with the fact of our separate being. We encounter rejection in disapproval, discipline, and sibling rivalry, and the fear grows. We become aware of the impermanence of relationships as death becomes real to us through the loss of a pet, stories of dying, or the loss of a significant person. If we cannot count on the security of our relationships or our place in the scheme of the world, we are lost.
Added to this is the child’s primitive fear of God. No matter how lovingly we are confronted with our Sunday school God, we must inevitably come to grips with the fact of God’s wrath. Even if it is played down, or explained to us, it does not disappear, but remains to surface again as doubt when we reach early adulthood. We may never realize that we really fear being alone in a universe that may be alien to us. If God is capable of turning away from us; if we someday could find ourselves bereft of any comfort or love, we must live the rest of our lives in a low-key hysteria, blindly cramming our lives with pacifiers in order not to think of the void beyond. Nameless fears and phobias are clung to unconsciously in hopes the real threat may somehow be dealt with.
This is why God is the only answer to ultimate fear. When we can know the truth that is God, we will know his love is incapable of being ended. We will know that we are not alone in a cold and aimless universe, or in the sway of a vengeful God. When this is perceived in the deepest core of our being, peace floods our world and makes it habitable for the human soul. As a child flees out of darkness into the light and warmth of a mother’s arms, so do we rush into the arms of the all mighty, all powerful, and all loving God. And fear is lost in peace.
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