I honestly don’t spend much time thinking about the lives of prostitutes, but during my kids’ bedtime story last week, the topic came up.

We were reading a children’s Bible that was published in the 1980s. Children’s Bibles published today lean more heavily into more palatable stories like David and Goliath and Joseph and the coat of many colors.

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But the authors of this older version did not shy away from the scandalous threads that run through the real thing.

As a massive but worthy departure from the topic at hand, let me take this moment to say I’ve noticed the media filters of my own childhood were not as stringent as filters are today.

Take movies, for instance. When I was in the third grade, I was invited to a slumber party with about 15 other girls at my friend Heather’s house. We played all the usual late-night pranks then spread our sleeping bags across the living room floor and popped the movie “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” into the VHS player.

One kid after another petered out and fell asleep. But I was so taken by Janey, Lynne and Jeff and their journey to Dance TV that when the credits rolled, I shimmied out of my Cabbage Patch Kids sleeping bag, pressed stop, rewind and then play and watched the whole movie again by myself in the middle of the night with 14 of my closest friends snoring all around me.

Recently, it came to my attention that my husband Jim had never seen “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” despite his deep and abiding love for 1980s standards like “Stand by Me,” “The Breakfast Club” and “Red Dawn,” among others.

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I had flashbacks of Heather’s birthday party and insisted upon watching the old slumber-party favorite. We did. And that’s when I discovered the PG rating in 1985 was far more lax than it is today. Case in point, “tune in, Tokyo.”

Back to prostitutes.

So we were reading the Old Testament story about a prostitute named Rahab. It’s a hard story, and I tend to avoid it, not only for my kids but for myself.

For one, God pours out his judgment on the city of Jericho. I don’t personally love hearing about judgment right before bed — or ever, if I’m being honest.

In the story, he uses his own people — a salty lot themselves — to carry out the plan. The only Jerichoan he saves is the prostitute Rahab, plus anyone who is found inside her home, when the walls of Jericho come crashing down.

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There’s marching, trumpeting and yelling. It’s a story that presents a plethora of questions from readers of all ages. But as I was reading it this time, something clicked.

Thanks to the PG-13 rated children’s Bible, I totally got it!

“For the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below,” Rahab told two of God’s men. “Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that you will show kindness to my family because I have shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters and all who belong to them — and that you will save us from death.”

Isn’t that what we’re all after? An escape from death and a sign to prove it?

“Our lives for your lives!” the men assured her. “This oath you made us swear will not be binding on us unless when we enter the land you have tied this scarlet cord in the window … and unless you have brought your father and mother, your brothers and all your family into your house. If any of them go outside your house into the street, their blood will be on their own heads; we will not be responsible. As for those who are in the house with you, their blood will be on our head if a hand is laid on them.”

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God, in his perfection, was about to judge sin. Personally, I don’t want anybody looking at, talking about or judging the stuff I do wrong.

But when I hear about murder, stealing, abuse, trafficking and the like, my heart cries out, “Bring on the judgment!”

Here’s the thing: Sin is sin. Not to say all sin is the same, but it’s all offensive to God. He is well within his rights to judge all sin whenever and wherever he wants whether we agree or not.

Do recall we are the offenders.

However, in this story, God provides a safe space, a bomb shelter, a refuge, a haven, a sanctuary. Rahab’s house, a brothel, is the place of safety. It’s open to anyone who shares Rahab’s faith in God and acts on it in faith by getting inside.

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All through the Old Testament, this same narrative plays out in a dozen other stories.

Think about it: Noah believes God is who he says he is, so he obeys by building a boat on dry land with no rain in sight. He ends up floating atop the worldwide waves inside the arc, a buoyant refuge.

The Israelites walk through the Red Sea with the Egyptians close behind, and they end up bone dry inside two walls of water, an aquatic refuge.

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego stand tall even though the king commands they bow low, and they end up burn-free inside the fiery furnace, a warm and cozy refuge.

Daniel prays to God despite a given law to deny him, and he ends up sleeping with the lions inside the den, a zoological refuge.

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God’s people brush the Passover lamb’s blood on the trim around their front doors, and they end up hunkered down with their whole family alive and well inside the house, a homey refuge.

And Rahab the prostitute professes her faith in God and then ties a scarlet thread out her window, and she and her family end up delivered instead of destroyed because they were found inside her brothel, a surprising refuge.

It’s so redundant it calls for a spoiler alert. God judges sin.

The victim in me is incredibly grateful while the offender in me is thoroughly terrified. But amid judgment, God offers a safe space.

The New Testament takes it to the next level by laying out the plan for the ultimate safe space: Jesus.

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Jesus is the plan. He’s the safe space. Jesus is both boat and brothel. Because he lived a sin-free life, he was not a candidate for God’s judgment. He could have escaped it all, but through his death and resurrection, he took the hit and offered his perfect safe space to anyone who believes he is who he says he is. And he will do what he says he will do.

Jesus is exactly how a perfect God can judge the horrific wrongs of this world, the sins that are destroying our city as well as the sins that lace their way through my thoughts, and save those who put their faith in him.

That’s what it means to be found in Christ.

When I realized the symbolism of the story of Rahab, when I realized her home was the one safe space inside Jericho just as Jesus is the one safe space in this world, the story of the Bible came together for me.

And that scarlet thread? In an act of brave faith, she hung it out her window, trusting God was who he said he was and he would do what he said he would do.

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However scandalous our own sin, the love of Christ goes even deeper.

“Mom,” my young daughter said. “Rahab’s house is a lot like Jesus. And her scarf is the same color as his blood!”

I guess the writers of the 1980s didn’t have it all wrong; the kids grasped what my grown-up overly analytical mind missed. Oh, to have faith like a child — just like Rahab did.

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Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’ He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.

Psalm 91:1-2, 4-5

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Last note: As a writer, I find inspiration everywhere. Music, both religious and secular, is almost always woven into my thinking as I write. With the permission of The Daily Memphian, sometimes I’ll link to a song that corresponds to the topic of my article. Here is this week’s song: “Beautiful Scandalous Night” by Sixpence None the Richer, Bebo Norman.