Protected by the Shepherd

For several months I’d been studying the 23rd Psalm. I loved its promise of protection and guidance, especially these lines: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies” (verses 4, 5 ). Each day the Psalm’s comforting truths would fill my thought and I would feel thoroughly cared for and deeply loved.

During this time, I assisted our family business by handling certain aspects of payroll. I often reasoned with my husband that workers should be paid with a check, but his practice was to pay in cash. So, it was normal for us to have a great sum of cash at our home the night before pay day. My concerns gave way to feelings of great uncertainty about what might happen.

One evening at home, the payroll was locked away in a file cabinet, and I was in the office doing some work when I heard a knock at the front door. My husband opened it and I heard conversation, then a strange noise. I started to the living room to see what was going on, then stopped short in the dining room as I saw in a mirrored reflection a masked man holding my husband down on the couch at gunpoint.

Then I stepped back into the office, only to look directly into the eyes of a second man standing at the opposite door. He told me to get down on the floor and to stay there. He seemed desperate, and I was afraid, so I obeyed. Once I was down, he briefly looked over the room and ran out, leaving me alone. Both men were yelling at my husband to tell them where the money was; my husband was pleading for them to calm down and talk with him to see how he could work something out for them.

Although my stomach was doing flip-flops as I lay quietly on the floor, I turned to those familiar verses from the 23rd Psalm. I felt comforted as I recited each line, but when I got to verse four—which talked about having to “walk through the valley of the shadow of death”—the thought of dying really scared me and I felt helpless. The man returned and began ransacking the office, tearing out the phone system and searching through drawers. It felt like I was watching a movie being played out right in front of me. In fact, it felt so obtrusive and unreal that I found my voice and spoke to this man. I told him he didn’t have to do this; that it wasn’t right and he knew it. With that he flew out of the office and returned to the front room.

My husband offered to take the two men to our daytime office where he would get them some money, but they wouldn’t leave. I humbly asked God to show me what to do, as I still felt paralyzed. Immediately a voice within, an angel message, commanded me to stand up. When I didn’t obey right away, the command became: Now!

I had totally placed my trust in God, and the courage came so I could stand. But where would I go? Much like a child, I gave my Father-Mother God my full attention, listening for direction. I realized later that this must be how sheep feel when the shepherd is showing them the way—they place their trust in their caretaker, who guides every step of the way. How could anyone resist such a wonderful feeling of security?

As I stood there I suddenly realized I needed to include the intruders in my prayers.

The answer to my prayer came again in the form of action: to get out the back door. I questioned, “Are you sure?” Now, was the command. I could no longer resist even if I wanted to, so I quietly walked through the kitchen, unlocked the back door, and went onto the deck. I thought I could get to the neighbors and call for help. But as I went to open the gate from the deck to the backyard, the simple lock wouldn’t open. About that time I heard a commotion in the house as someone inside came running toward the kitchen door. I moved over and knelt down behind a large piece of equipment, which enabled me to hide from the office light streaming out onto the deck. Right then, our dog, who was in her night pen at the back of the yard, began to bark more viciously than I’d ever heard before. The man stopped short at the back door and stayed in the house.

It was hard to know what to do next. I didn’t want to leave my husband, yet as I reached out once again for divine direction, the thought came to go down the steps, now. The same lock that before wouldn’t open now opened effortlessly. I ran to a second lock to an outer gate, which wouldn’t open either. As I stood there I suddenly realized I needed to include the intruders in my prayers—to see them as God sees them, as His perfect expressions, pure, perfect, and harmless. They too were upheld by divine Love and could not harm another, since they were already in possession of all they would need.

When I included them in prayer and forgave them, the direction came to kneel down at the fence. There was a work truck parked on the other side, and as I knelt, I heard a loud noise from the house and the two men flew out the front door, jumped into their car, and sped away. Because I was kneeling, I was safely hidden from the car lights. The gate opened effortlessly then, and I ran to the neighbors and called 911. I told them I wasn’t sure about my husband’s safety; the noise I heard sounded like a gunshot. But I kept praying; deep down I never felt that my husband wasn’t safe. I knew that God was protecting both of us, as well as the men who’d broken in—as evidenced by the fact that my husband had stayed calm the whole time he was being held on the couch.

I was instructed to stay on the line and wait until the police arrived. And it wasn’t long before they told me my husband had also called in and was all right.

The intruders had been in our home 30 minutes, but it felt like a lifetime. I’m so grateful for how every detail was worked out, to everyone’s protection. I remember thinking how the ending could have been different—but I knew that the two men could only hear the truth of their innate goodness. I know now it was the Shepherd’s divine direction and protection, outlined in the 23rd Psalm, that had prepared me to trust solidly in God’s great assurance. It was so clear that I had been led by Truth.

The police told us sometimes robbers attempt to return, so I phoned a Christian Science practitioner and asked for prayerful help for my family. Only blessings resulted: The robbers never came back, and I was so pleased that both my husband and I were healed of fear. We even found humor in the fact that the only thing missing was the cordless phone, which my husband had offered to one of the men, who had pretended to need to call for help for the car. The business’s payroll is now kept in the bank, and the workers are paid by check.

I’ve learned that when fear comes into our experience, we need only affirm that everyone’s real existence is never apart from good, God. Though the two men were never caught, God’s protection was so evident to me from start to finish, and I continued to feel safe. Each step of the way I felt guided, even when things seemed so terrifying and bogged down. As we trust, wholly accepting God’s protection as the truth, we will certainly feel the complete assurance of protection and guidance. As the end of the 23rd Psalm states, “Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.”