“The Lord is our shepherd…” asserted the psalmist David; and his descendant Jesus of Nazareth, who came as the Messiah, God’s anointed leader whom Israel long awaited, described himself as “The Good Shepherd”.

Even when we go through the dire depths of the Valley of the Shadow to struggle with sickness, loss of well-being and even of life itself, the Good Shepherd’s ‘rod and staff’ guide, encourage and ensure we keep on the right track, albeit hidden and thus raising thoughts that maybe we’ve gone astray. So, the Lord definitely does comfort us.

And beyond that dark vale He opens the veil to bring about our personal good – because we love Him and are called according to His purposes. There, He spreads a banqueting table before us – and not only for us to be blessed at His celebratory, festive spread but also for our personal earthly and spiritual opposition, the hosts of wickedness, to see and witness our reward and blessing at His hands!

For the last five months we’ve been through a deepening trial over Nina’s health, which came to a climax six weeks ago in severely painful and crippling loss of mobility. Hence my personal note of mid-January.

The faithful intercessory support of dozens of brothers and sisters in the Lord were a strong and sure support. Answers to our prayers started manifesting this week with the successful outcome of precision, albeit very dicey, non-invasive surgical procedure on her damaged spine. Thank and praise you Lord.

The scheduling of this surgery brought an unusual, coincidental effect upon this blog. The operation would have been performed last week had it not been for the half-term holidays. That is, a full surgical team wasn’t available because some staff needed to be absent for their school children.

Therefore, it enabled me to be on-hand to watch a situation develop. It would have been missed had the surgery been performed a week earlier!

All will be revealed next week…

Meanwhile, be blessed by reading Carol Good’s meditative blog on The 23rd Psalm, and to whom this post’s illustration is accredited.