REFLECTIONS

Very Special Gift

Ray recalled the tightness in his chest and the shortness of breath he had felt. He explained to the audience that open heart surgery had soon followed. He remembered praying, “It’s just you and me Lord,” as the gurney transported him into the operating room. His story was captivating, but Ray’s story had another important point to make.

He wanted his audience to know of the sense of peace he found that day—a peace beyond any he had ever felt 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 neither be alone nor afraid.”

As his story fell on my ears, I could hardly believe the words I heard. I felt they had been stolen right out of my own experience. There was a time in my own life when a gurney transported me into the operating room and I closed my eyes in prayer using the same words he had chosen, “It’s just you and me Lord.”

Years have now placed great 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 our loving God, these gifts were wrapped into a single package.

The first was healing. Like Ray’s surgery, mine was successful and my body is healed. The second gift was the sense of peace I found on the gurney that day. But the third gift is the one 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 the loneliness of my hospital room the night before the surgery. I remembered my prayer on the gurney. And as I relive my experience today I realize that whether in the solitude of a hospital room or on a gurney toward the operating room, or facing threats from daily life, I will be never be alone. And in his loving presence I will not be 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,

Richard +

www.reflectingthesavior.org

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