Grandma was an adventurous gal—ahead of her time. She reminds me, metaphorically, of the security we have in Christ. Hearty, resourceful, and meticulous, she lived through World War I (1914-18), the U.S. Great Depression (1929-41), and World War II (1939-45). And she was frugal, along with the rest of her generation who successfully rode out the financial tides of boom and bust. She excelled in everything, including hunting, fishing, canoeing, and making blueberry pies—and she was the only one who could tame Jack, her husband. When it came to traveling, which they loved to do, she was the trip planner, tour guide, and vacation chronicler all rolled into one.

I came across a lengthy correspondence she penned in 1965 (when Gramps was 72 years old and she 69) sent to my dad (her son). She was conveying the details of their upcoming October trip from the cold climes of northern Minnesota to the warm, dry weather of Psalm Desert and San Diego in California. This was before the internet, cell phones, email, and GPS. A cross-country car trip like that was a significant event and required careful planning. Flying was too expensive for most regular people, as were long-distance phone calls. Telephones were tethered to the walls and had dials on them. My grandparents had a party line, which meant multiple households used the same line, with distinguishing ring patterns for each. (Yes, you could quietly pick up and listen in on the other people’s call—but so could they!)

Only baby boomers alive today remember what it meant when making a long-distance call to ask the telephone operator for “Time and charges, please,” or “I’d like to make a collect call.” Then you would talk loudly because the person on the other end was far away. Your sentences would be run on with very few pauses because you were being charged by the minute. All this to say, communication was primarily by what today we call snail mail. And thus, Grandma’s long, wordy, thorough letter letting Dad know where all the valuables were hidden in the farm and barn.

Securing the family’s valuables was a priority for her when they left for the big trip westward. She was not being paranoid, but they lived about 10 miles outside of town on the family farm, which was situated a couple hundred yards back from a wall of pine trees, out of sight from the highway. It was a perfect cover for thieves to have a field day with little chance of being caught.

She had the family safe in the barn under the stairs, with junk piled in front of it. The combination for the relic was three turns of the dial to number 83, two turns back to number 20, and then back to 100. (There was no encryption for snail mail, but she trusted the postal system not to divert this classified info into disreputable hands.

Her instructions continued: the movie projector (a hot theft item apparently) with films was hidden in the dresser in the long closet upstairs; phonograph records were to be found in the lower left drawer of the buffet; the clock was at Lydia’s, guns at Katharine’s; and fruit and vanilla at Herb’s (that’s a head-scratcher, for sure). I’m not sure why she hid the fishing gear under the couch when an entire room in the barn was given over to camping, hunting, and fishing gear storage—maybe their special fishing equipment justified extra security. And the key to the buffet was hidden in the “clothes basket under the paper.” House and barn keys were with the neighbors. One can never be too safe, is what she thought. She assured impishly, “Dog gone it, the house and barn are in the same spot!” Old school security was adequate; I have heard no report that my grandparents lost anything to theft.

They would pack their Dodge sedan with golf clubs, bags and carts, bowling balls, and “the darn portable T.V. which seems so big.” They planned to set up a rented trailer at a reserved spot in Palm Desert. Afterward, they would skip over to San Diego, which Gramps “loves.”

Today, travel is much easier, and securing our possessions has taken on a new look. We still need to protect our valuables, but now we do it with safe-deposit boxes, video doorbells, and alarm systems. We concern ourselves with protecting our intellectual properties and digital media with the multiplicity of online passwords. We even have passwords to protect our collection of passwords!

The possessions we desire to secure have changed significantly, but one thing remains the most crucial. That one thing is eternal life. We spend so much time on things of life on earth, like travel, work, family, hobbies, sports, entertainment, finances, etc. All good things, but we can’t take any of them beyond the grave. This is where God comes in. For those who believe in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sin, by His dying in our place on the cross, the secure safekeeping of our souls is impenetrable. It cannot be stolen away, lost, or misplaced. Here is what the Bible says about the security of eternal life:

God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. (1 John 5:11–13)

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom. 8:38–39)

Safe and secure, no one can pick the lock because our eternal life is safe with God; no one can steal it away from us. It simply cannot get any more secure than that! Those who have received Christ are secure in Him forever!