The Valley of the Shadow

So much for my renewed commitment to keep up my writing. I admit I haven't even thought about the blog, or my email, or facebook or any such thing in the past couple of weeks. I've spent my time...well, occupied.

Mostly, I've been pacing the ICU waiting room at the not-so-local hospital while my mom hovered near death from some unidentified illness. She went in on day one with "pneumonia" and on day seven was placed on a ventilator, had a lung collapse, and sent into a medically-induced coma from which we didn't know if she would ever awake. It was like living an episode of that medical show, House, where the weirdest illnesses almost kill every patient before they find the right treatment.

Needless to say, blogging was far from foremost in my thoughts. Heavenly communication trumped all as I prayed like crazy for God to give my mom another chance. I recited the Twenty-third Psalm to mom (and myself, I suppose) repeatedly as she lay there, very literally in the "valley of the shadow of death."

The blessing came early in week three of her illness. The day she re-learned how to breathe on her own. I celebrated with tears and tremedous praise. A couple more days passed and she could speak and smile at me. Reunion! Relief!

She is now at the rehab hospital, learning just how weak she has become and how strong she still is. I have to appreciate all the care she is being given, but the thing that has impacted me the most is how very involved God is in our lives. He watched over me while I worried, took care of my family when I spent most waking moments away from them, and best of all woke Mom both physically and spiritually.

I have discovered that in that valley where darkness and death are so very, very near, the Shadow that triumphs is the one cast by God's presence as He covers us. Surely His goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life--and my mom's!

"Even though I walk through the

valley of the shadow of death,

I fear no evil; for Thou art with me;

Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me....

Surely goodness and mercy will follow me

all the days of my life,

And I will dwell in the house of the Lord

forever."

--Psalm 23:4,6