Friday Devotional:

Psalm 23

The beautiful words of Psalm 23 have provided comfort for billions of believers over thousands of years. But it isn't an easy comfort that bypasses grief and pain. The psalmist acknowledges the times we walk through dark valleys-or, as the King James Version renders it hauntingly, "through the valley of the shadow of death." No pretending things don't hurt, no false cheerfulness to "prove" our faith.

We experience comfort not by being lifted out of it but because God accompanies us on our journey through the valley of shadow. This is comfort with real skin in the game-an investment so profound that the creator of the universe slipped into human skin to live, love, suffer, bleed, and die-descending into the darkest valley to ensure that no matter what we go through, we are never alone.

And this same investment that led God into the depths of death raised Christ out of it on the third day, assuring that we, too, will be raised from our dark valleys.

God of comfort, you join us in our suffering and transform it. Thank you for being with us. Amen.

An excerpt from Christ in Our Home

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