00:00The Chibi News Daily Reflection
00:04Hi, I'm Chris Tufnell, the vicar of Utterbridge Parish Church.
00:10Many people are fascinated by the question of whether we're alone in the universe
00:16or whether there's other life out there.
00:19It's a question that occupies scientists pouring over the data from their telescopes
00:24and maybe sci-fi fans as well.
00:27But far more important to far more people
00:30is the question of whether or not we're alone in this world,
00:35in the day-to-day and in the challenges of life.
00:38I think it's why so often when people ask me to preach at a funeral,
00:43they ask me to speak on Psalm 23.
00:46The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing, he makes me lie down in green pastures,
00:50he leads me beside quiet waters.
00:52And this is the key line.
00:54Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
00:58I will fear no evil, for you are with me.
01:03Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
01:06And I think it's why at the end of Matthew's Gospel,
01:09Jesus' final words to his followers before returning to heaven were these,
01:14Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
01:19When we're in the valley, as it were, suffering, scared or struggling in whatever way,
01:27we might wish God would just give us a ticket out of there.
01:31He doesn't offer that, but he does offer this,
01:35to be a friend in the valley and to give us a future beyond it.
01:40And for anyone who has come to call God my shepherd,
01:45it's the most exquisite comfort,
01:48and it makes all the difference in the world to know that we are not alone.
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