REFLECTIONS
July 29, 2007
 
 
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Psalm 23:4 KJV
 
 
Very Special Gift
 
 Ray recalled the tightness he felt in his chest and the shortness of breath he experienced. The heart attack revealed the need for open heart surgery. He explained to the audience that as he was being transported on the gurney into the operating room, he closed his eyes in prayer. “It’s just you and me Lord.” But Ray had a point to his story.
Ray wanted the audience to know about the peace he found that day for it was a peace beyond any he had sensed before. But his point went even beyond that and he searched for words to explain it. Finally he concluded, “Now I know what it will be like to face death. I will be neither alone nor afraid.”
I could hardly believe my ears, as he told his story. I felt like he had stolen the words right out of my own experience. There was a time not so many years ago when I found myself being transported on a gurney into the operating room and I closed my eyes in prayer using the very same words, “It’s just you and me Lord.”
Several years have now passed and those years have placed distance between me and the peace that I found that day. But God gave me three gifts from that occasion and like so many of the gifts from Him, these gifts were wrapped in a single package.
The first was healing. Just like Ray’s surgery, mine was successful and my body is healed. The second gift was the sense of peace I found on that gurney; but it is the third gift that remains with me today though I was not so quick to discover it.
Unknowingly I have been carrying it with me for those many years. Ray’s story caused me to relive my own. I recalled my prayer on the gurney and the loneliness of my hospital room. And as I relived my experience I realized that whether I was on that gurney or in the solitary of my hospital room, I was neither alone nor afraid.
Now I suspect that when King David was running from the wrath of Saul, he just may have prayed, “It’s just you and me Lord.” And it may have been from that prayer that God blessed him with those very same gifts. His life was spared, God’s peace fell upon him; but while walking through the shadow of death, King David discovered another gift too—he was neither alone nor afraid.
It is a very special gift.
                   
“You are the light of the world.”
RichardÌ
 

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