The Lord Is My Shepherd

Posted by Molly

My four year old, Charlie, woke up puking in the middle of the night on Memorial Day starting off a week of illness in my house that is still on-going.  The only thing worse than being sick yourself is having a sick child.  Charlie, as I've mentioned many times before, is a wild man so when he gets sick it is especially sad because it's as if his fighting spirit is broken.  He is weak and helpless and small.  It's heartbreaking.  Combine that with my absolute panic that his sickness was going to spread through my house (and it did despite my best efforts - Mac and Bob are sick now) and it's pretty obvious that my week did not start off very well. 

But something really awesome happened that got me through. 
On Tuesday, as Charlie lay crying that his ear and his tummy hurt and asking me why this was happening to him, I tried to softly explain that everyone gets sick but he would be better soon and I would not leave him.  And it was at that moment that he looked at me with the sweetest face of a tiny angel and said "I know you will take care of me because you are my shepherd".  I was surprised by this response and asked "what?" and he said "You know - you're my shepherd and I'm your lamb.  You take care of me and Jesus takes care of you." 

I'd love to take credit for teaching him this but I can't because I have never read the Psalm of David to Charlie.  I asked him how he knew about Jesus being our shepherd and he said he heard it in church.  I didn't think he listened in mass.  Again, wow.  Not only does he listen but he understands.  And he relates what he hears to his own life.  Hearing him call me his shepherd gave me the energy to keep going this week and be the best shepherd possible.  And it inspired me to try to think about how important it is to try in our small every day lives to be shepherds for one another.  Being a shepherd is a lot easier when you have a shepherd.  I'm grateful that I have a child who even in his lowest moments reminds me that Jesus is mine.