Blanket.

It is freezing cold.  My toes have been in cozy socks, and they are still frozen.  Along with my nose.  My toes and my nose.  I know how to rhyme!  But seriously, they are the only things that get cold on my body, and I can't get them warm.

So I grabbed an extra blanket for tonight.  It was given to me by my grandma quite a few years ago.  It's sort of a throw, I guess you might say.  It is cream and forest green with sheep sewn around the edges, and a Psalm stitched into the center.  Psalm 23 to be exact.

Huddled underneath my warm layers this evening, I started to peruse Netflix.  I found myself watching "David" (with Richard Gere) tonight, mostly out of curiosity.  It may sound like a ridiculous movie, but it wasn't that bad.  Richard Gere is one of my top-ten favorite male actors (as I'm sure he is for many), but I was interested in the fact that he starred in such a movie because he is a practicing Buddhist.  I think he was in "David" before he stepped into Buddhism.  Or he is just a really good actor.

Anyway, the movie's beginning includes David's encounter with Goliath, the gigantic Philistine man.  He starts to say Psalm 23 out loud, and it occurred to me that I was laying underneath exactly what this man was saying.  It was weird because the very words that came across David's lips thousands of years ago are stitched into my blanket.  Isn't that so bizarre?

Here it is, Psalm 23:

The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
 He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
 he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
   for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk
   through the darkest valley,
I will fear no evil,
   for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
   they comfort me.

 You prepare a table before me
   in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
   my cup overflows.
Surely your goodness and love will follow me
   all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
   forever.

(Emphasis is mine)

I have so much more to understand about this chapter in the Psalms.  David wrote this one; he was a shepherd himself.  I've always wanted to try shepherding, ever since I saw a family do it on National Geographic.  It's no easy task mind you, and, out of frustration, I would probably abandon my sheep.  Seriously.  They're stupid, and they smell.  But the thing I admire about shepherds is their ability to have compassion on their flock, and to take care of them in spite of themselves.

I have only been a Christ-follower for about ten years.  At so many points I have looked up at my Shepherd after traipsing off, and getting lost, and I have thought, "Is now the point at which you are going to abandon me?  Is it now that I no longer will receive your love?  Will I never see your rod and staff again?  Because I feel stupid, rank with disobedience & selfishness." 

Time and time again Jesus has shown his faithfulness to me.  Sometimes people will refer to him as the "Good Shepherd".  It's not just the title of a ridiculous movie with a white, pasty, blond-haired Jesus; it's the truth.  This was one of the first Psalms that I ever heard, and I still have yet to comprehend parts of it.  Part of me is afraid of this Psalm.  And yet, part of me revels in the fact that the Creator of the Universe treasures me as one of many sheep in his flock.  It feels so wonderful to be blanketed, literally, in these words.  To know that as I fall asleep tonight, Jesus sings this song over me: as my Lover, my King, my Friend, and my Savior.  My Shepherd.

To be blanketed in his words is to live a full, content life.  Warmed by his love.