Nougat 12

When life feels uncomfortable, may we find assurance in today’s Holy Nougat

“I may walk through valleys as dark as death, but I won’t be afraid. You are with me, and your shepherd’s rod makes me feel safe.” ‭‭Psalms‬ ‭23‬:‭4‬ ‭CEV‬‬

I remember being deathly afraid of the dark. For it represented the unknown, the dangers, the things that go ‘bump in the night.’ Some of us, it’s not darkness that bothers us – it’s being alone, that sense of being forgotten, dis-membered, and dismissed. Others fear uncertainty, and anything that is not clear or logical is suspect and unnerving.

To some extent, each of these is included in the Valley that is as dark as death. For death – as per Genesis 3 – is about separation from God. That’s why it’s the ‘wage’ for sin. Through sin death became our natural course of life. But the psalmist is clear – the Valley is as dark as Death, but it is death.

Our situation might seem impossible, but until the fact of physical literal Death, we

can register God’s presence. And, if we know that God is with us – it is well. The apostle puts it succinctly, ’what can separate us from the love of God?’ … not height nor depth, not principalities nor powers, not present debt, nor past sins, not our fears nor our cares, not things that go bump in the night can separate us from God’s Love.

That’s Good News, for it’s the assurance that we’re not forgotten, abandoned or bereft. Psalm 139 reminds us that, as our Creator, God is everywhere. Our actions may separate us from being in God’s presence eternally, but God is with us in the here and now.

When walking in those Valleys that are as dark as death, we might panic. But God’s Love offers us an alternative. For Jesus, God’s Love, has already provided the Way back when we panic and/or stray. When we call out to God in those moments, we get enough Light to send us to the next step and the next and the next …

God’s with us, equipped with rod and staff to remove our fear.

—

May all we seek be found in Christ