I’m still wearing purple this week. Purple is for the month of April—the Month of the Military Child. Last week, we looked at the unique challenges and difficulties that military children often face, and we saw how Jesus addresses those challenges by giving the peace that only he can give.

Today, Jesus uses a little bit of a different picture to address some of those challenges that military children face, and he does that through the words of a military father, a war fighter, a combat veteran, a commander, a general, a king. You could use all of those words to describe this man. His name is David.

David wrote a lot of songs in the Bible. They’re called psalms. And in Psalm 23, King David writes, “The Lord is my shepherd.” King David uses the picture of a shepherd, because before his vocation was soldiering and being a king, he was a shepherd. And David knew how much sheep need a shepherd. Sheep are kind of helpless creatures. They get themselves into trouble. They have a bad sense of direction, and sometimes they’ll just walk right off of a steep ravine and fall and break their legs or break their necks. They get lost. They’re pretty defenseless creatures. When a wolf or a lion or a bear attacks, sheep could run away for a little bit, but there’s no way to defend themselves. They will be caught by that wild animal and killed. Sometimes sheep don’t know what to eat, and sometimes they eat poisonous things in the wild that actually cause them to die.

Sheep need a shepherd to protect them, show them where to eat, and show them the foods they ought to eat. David understood this. And he, as a shepherd, admits, “I need a shepherd too.” Even though David as king was shepherd of God’s people, the nation of Israel, he needed a shepherd too. And that’s why in Psalm 23 he writes, “The Lord is my shepherd”—especially because of what he says in verse 4: “I walk through the darkest valley.”

For you as a military child, are there days that feel that way? That you’re walking through a dark valley? You’re walking down this path, with rocks and earth rising up to your right, and rocks and earth rising up to your left, and you can barely see the top on either side? There are trees and it’s dark and you don’t know what’s out there? It can be very scary.

Does it feel that way when you know that you have to move again? Does it feel that way when Mom or Dad deploys? Does it feel that way when Mom or Dad has to go out into the field for training, and you know sometimes that can be dangerous too?

Does it feel that way when Mom and Dad just seem a little bit off? Not normal—something is just not right with them, and it frightens you a little bit. You worry about them. Or maybe it feels that way when Mom and Dad fight, and they fight a lot.

Sometimes it can feel that way in life, walking through that dark valley, but here’s the thing. King David admitted, “I walk through that dark valley, but I have a good shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd.” You see, Jesus is your Good Shepherd too. And when you walk through that dark valley, first of all know this: that he understands, that he gets it because he’s been there.

Some of the things that Jesus had to go through in his life—he had people that just hated him. He had friends that abandoned him. He had a friend that betrayed him. Jesus had friends that died, and that made him really, really sad. Jesus even had people who hated him so much that they crucified him by putting him on a cross so that he died and had to be buried because he was dead.

But Jesus, even though he walked through that dark valley, came out on the other side just fine because he rose from the dead. And he lives today to be your Good Shepherd, to walk with you as you walk through that dark valley. When you have to move again, when Mom or Dad just seems a little bit off and that makes you worried, when Mom and Dad fight a lot, when Mom or Dad deploys, when they have to go out into the field for training—any dark thing that is happening in your life—Jesus is your Good Shepherd, and he walks with you. He promises that.

King David said, “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid. I will fear no evil, for you are with me.” And the only way that Jesus can be with you all the time, no matter where you are, no matter how you are feeling, is if he has been raised from the dead, and he most certainly has.

So go today, dear military child, with this good news. You have a Good Shepherd who walks with you through that dark valley. Even when you and I have to face the dark valley of death, David says, we will fear no evil, because Jesus faced that dark valley of death, and he came through on the other side by rising from the dead. So will we too. We will come through on the other side just fine, because we will rise from the dead just like Jesus, never to be afraid, never to be scared ever again.

Prayer:

O Lord Jesus Christ, you are the Good Shepherd who laid down your life for the sheep. Lead us now to the still waters of your life-giving Word, that we may abide in your Father’s house forevermore, for you live and reign with him and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.