As my usual routine, I went by after work to check on my friend.  He was doing alright but in a melancholy mood.  He told me he wanted to be young again so he could work as he did then.  I told him it wasn’t possible for anyone to do that, but more importantly he must be ready to go to his heavenly home.  He told me he tried to be a good Christian and a good man.  He is a new Christian, and he is learning.  Christianity has changed him.  He was baptized at the age of 85.

My friend was married just shy of 60 years when his wife passed from this life.

“For all our days are passed away in Thy wrath:  we spend our years as a tale that is told.  The days of our years are threescore years and ten:  and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off and we fly away.”        Psalm 90:9-10

Most people don’t know my friend as I do.  He is very benevolent to others.  He gives freely from his heart, and has a soft spot for others when they are ill or lose their jobs.  He then finds work on his farm to help them while they are looking for steady employment.

I had to leave before I cried.  I could hear a loneliness and sadness in his voice I had not heard before……..

I often think of the hymn in moments like this, “We are going down the valley one by one. . .”   He will be 88 in May.

“It was David, the ancient shepherd boy, who pictorially expressed the hope of frail man in the eloquent and immortal Twenty-third Psalm.

For hundreds of years, on every shore and in every clime, it has dried the tears and healed the hearts of countless numbers who helplessly stood by and watched as a husband or wife, son or daughter, father or mother, brother or sister slipped down through the valley of the shadow of death.

Its words have been upon the trembling lips of millions who slowly turned from the flower-decked mound where the earthly frame they loved so dearly was placed to sleep in hallowed ground.

And later, when time stood still in mournful shadows, as they tried to put back together a broken heart, they found peace in the way of life and death provided by the Good Shepherd.

Today, man’s needs are no different.  And the shepherd’s psalm is still a balm for hearts that ache and bleed and break.”        ~ Leroy Brownlow

“The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.  He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:  He leadeth me beside the still waters.  He restoreth my soul:  He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His names’s sake.  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.  Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:  Thou anointest my head with oil:  My cup runneth over.  Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:  And I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.”   Psalm 23

Eileen Light