Ms. Smith, The Lord is Her Shepherd

The Lord's Day is His for our delightful rest in His presence in the context of worship, rest and mercy. It is a blessing to call the Lord's Day a delight when He comes near and speaks to us from His throne of grace by His Word, and what a delight it was to hear His word spoken from the mouth of Ms. Smith on this Lord's Day.

Ms. Smith is in her late forties or early fifties living in an assisted living home since suffering a severe stroke. She is no longer able to carry out her vocation as a nurse and is now confined to living in her hometown under someone else's nurse care. Each week we visit with her and the other residents and hold a worship service with them in the living room of their assisted living home. Ms. Smith is a regular to the worship services. She cannot speak many words but her countenance glows as we sing hymns together and she smiles or is sometimes expressive of sorrow when the Word is read and preached. We often ask her questions hoping to get information from her so that we can better understand her life and minister to her, but we are usually met with a shake of her head because of her inability to communicate. She will nod in agreement, shake her head in disagreement or say, "I tell you man", but this is usually the limits of her communication. However, that all changed on this Lord's Day.

We were turning in our hymnals to "Great is Thy Faithfulness" as our musician was readying herself to lead us in singing when I asked, "Who can tell me of a Psalm from the Scriptures that proclaims to us the faithfulness of God?" No one spoke up, so I continued, "I have one in mind I am sure some of you know. Do you know Psalm 23?" As I looked up Ms. Smith was beaming. Then I began, "The Lord is my..." and I was interrupted by a booming, "Shepherd" from Ms. Smith. And with that she and I continued through the Psalm word for word from the beginning to the end. She was beaming with joy and bouncing in her chair like a child before her father as though she knew she was going to receive a great reward. She has not spoken but a few words and has been unable to remember and bring to speech what she thinks in her mind up to this point. But the Word of God that is written on her heart and is her life came bursting forth. Needless to say I rejoiced in the Lord with her.

I had gone to the assisted living center to preach the gospel and be a conduit of God's grace and mercy to those residents. And the Lord of the Sabbath who made this day for man to find his rest in the presence of His glory shinned the light of His glory in my face in Christ. I visited with a lady who has suffered the loss of many things in this earth but who possesses an eternal inheritance in Jesus Christ and God is satisfying her heart with Himself revealed to her in His Word of Truth. The Word is her life and I shared in the joy of her life in Christ through His Word. She did not say anything else the rest of our time with her. She was unable, but her joy was full and so was mine.