Oh God, when I walk through the valley of the shadow of death...!
You are with me.
What a pairing of often unrelated experience that is. However (a huge however), when the two come together--deep fear, deep presence--our darkest dreads begin to be transformed because they are experienced more and more in the company of God. In God's PRESENCE.
But there's another presence in the 23rd Psalm: "You set a table for me in the presence of my enemies." Sounds like a recipe for massive indigestion, doesn't it? A banquet catered by God with a guest list from hell.
But the Valley-of-the-Shadow and God's Generous Table are almost the same thing. Both experiences are made into something we think of as almost impossible by God's presence.
Our big, familiar, blackest fears can be faced and will be changed in God's presence.
The banquet we think mostly for people we enjoy, the great and happy feast we long for but that also includes people we don't enjoy at all, people who we're in conflict with--this too, this too, this too is transformed by God's PRESENCE.
We long for God's presence when we're afraid. God longs to be present with us wherever we encounter our 'enemies.' In both places, as we open our minds, hearts, and imaginations again and again and again, Ah, find PRESENCE is a wonder. We are profoundly comforted in it and fed by it.
Being mindful of this wonder incarnates love, peace and purpose in us and into the world where we touch it.
