COVID-19 Novel Encouragement Sample

I am Not Afraid of Death

I am not afraid of death. It was the Shepherd who taught me that through the death of my mother.

Three years ago, when my youngest child was one, my mum was diagnosed with cancer in her throat. The night before an operation to remove the cancer, and her voicebox, she recorded herself reading some of her favorite Psalms as a gift to her children and grandchildren. Then, no more natural voice.

Six months later, after further spread of cancer, we were awaiting her death. Options had been exhausted. A friend asked her how she felt about dying. She wrote, (since that was her new way to communicate) “My Good Shepherd will carry me safely between the worlds. So comforting.”

Six weeks later we stood around her bed. Music was playing – a playlist I had thrown together to encourage her in her last days. She breathed her last breath. We stood, watching her body change. Then we heard her voice. Her voice reading Psalm 23.

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.

He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.

Even though I walk through the darkest valley (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.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

We knew she trusted in the Good Shepherd. We knew in theory, but in the minutes after she died, hearing the recording that God had nudged her to produce 8 months earlier brought home that she had indeed been carried safely home.

The ultimate victory over death is certain. The victory by that Shepherd has already been won.

In the Book of John chapter 10 Jesus talks about himself:

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me —  just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life — only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”

Knowing the Shepherd – as King David did when he wrote the Psalm – does not remove the challenges, but it gives hope in the middle of them. To know the Good Shepherd. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, did lay down his life, and came back to life again.

Now all of life is seen through the eyes of being His – we just await the time when we can go home with him. His sheep brought safely home.

Do you long to go home to your passport country?

Could this longing help you to know a deeper longing, the longing to go home to where you truly belong?

Do you know the comfort of knowing the Good Shepherd?

Scientific predictions are high that you will live through this virus epidemic. But one day – maybe in many years – will be your last.

Do you know the comfort of knowing the Good Shepherd?

Prayer for today:

Jesus, you are the Good Shepherd, I put my trust in you! You provide for me, and I will trust you!

By Jane, Beijing