Christine’s story

'Psalm 23 kept me going when my brother died'

‘It was a horrendous year. It started in the August in 2016 and it continued until my brother passed away in August 2017. He had bone cancer. It was heart-breaking. 

‘I just thought that Psalm 23 was just read at funerals. I knew it off by heart from childhood and didn’t think it was for me. That year, it really, really hit home. Paul lived 125 miles down the road from me. It was a 250-mile round trip to look after him, which was difficult. 

‘On one journey going down the road I was so tired and it was exhausting the whole thing and then I just started to think of Psalm 23, it came into my head and different verses kept coming to me. I thought that the Lord was with me. It was just like a light coming at the end of the tunnel, which I couldn’t see before. 

‘Then I started to think that Psalm 23 was for me and that the Lord was there and taking care of me and that He would give me rest when I needed it. Most of all He gave me peace and hope. 

‘After feeling that on the drive down, the sense of peace continued. I felt that I could cope with the situation, that I wasn’t there on my own. The peace that I felt enabled me to cope with everything that went on. At times it was tangible. There was a warmth and a glow about it, like someone was walking with me. That was absolutely wonderful. Without it I couldn’t have coped the way I did. 

‘I was with Paul right up until the last. I was with him when he passed away. 

‘It kept me going that Psalm. It was a horrendous time. It was a lovely, peaceful ending. I felt prepared for that. My brother was walking through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. I don’t think the Psalm means death, it means darkness and struggles which was what I was having. He led me through that. 

‘It definitely made a big, big difference. I’m not a person that has these big encounters with Jesus, but that did have a very positive effect on me.’