Flight

This morning's nytimes.com carries a story about new attacks against Iraqi Christians. It reads in part:

"It was the third attack targeting Christians since the church siege on Oct. 31. Late Tuesday, a series of bombs hit three empty houses belonging to Christians in western Baghdad but no one was hurt. Last week, an al-Qaida-linked group claimed responsibility for the church attack and threatened more violence against Iraq's Christian community. 

"The threat left many Christians in the country wondering whether it was time to flee their homeland.

"'We were terrified by the explosions," said Juleit Hana, a 33-year-old Christian who lives in one of the neighborhoods targeted Wednesday. She was having breakfast with her daughter when she heard the bombs go off. She vowed to leave the country.

"It's not worth staying in a country where the government is not able to protect you even when you are sitting in your house.'" 

Flight is not synonymous with retreat. Under many circumstances it is what we must do to preserve the life we have been given. In Matthew 2, with Herod's treachery looming, the angel tells Joseph in a dream to "Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt...."

We too are to flee from the devil, from the chains of addiction, from idols, from all that ensnares us. "Seek good and not evil, that you may live!" (Amos 5:14)

Above: Henry Ossawa Tanner, Flight into Egypt (Cincinnati Museum of Art)