HE WALKS WITH GOD

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me” (Psalm 23:4 NIV)

The night before the doctors were to release my father from the hospital, his heart failed and he entered eternity. I grieved, in part, because he was alone when the momentous step from earth to heaven was taken.

I was drawn to the book dad used to read each morning, given to him in 1921 by the Women’s Missionary Society from his church. I turned to the page he would have read on the day of his death.

The reading, from Psalm 23:4, reminded me that dad hadn’t been alone at all when he died. God had personally come to escort him through the dark valley, to calm his fears, and to comfort him in that second of time when he was disconnecting from this life.

The believer fears “no evil” when the moment of death comes. If God walks close to us in life, He walks even closer in death. What “comfort” does a dying man need? Though there is no sorrow on the other side, letting go is just as hard for the dying as it is for those left behind. God accompanies those leaving just as much as He consoles those who must remain behind in earth’s waiting room.

Much as we might prefer to skip from Psalm 23’s green pastures down here, to the banqueting table over there, the valley which connects them is also a beautiful part of the experience of walking with God. It is one that we shouldn’t fear.

It takes one who has personally known death to safely guide us through its dark valley.