The Shadow of Death

As I write this, we are in the throes of a pandemic.

COVID-19 has turned our world upside down and forever changed the way we relate to one another. I was home in Jamaica until March 30, but a sense of duty and responsibility made me leave my safe haven with family to travel alone to the New York tristate area, which was the epicenter of the virus. I am a labor and delivery nurse and had scheduled myself for work throughout April. I could not bring myself to cancel my shifts and leave my frontline colleagues short-staffed at the height of the pandemic.

I guess this is how people feel when they sign up to go to war, despite knowing that it could change their lives forever. I left home not knowing when I would return to my family or see them again. I left knowing that my sister, with whom I live when I am in the United States of America, had been significantly exposed and might be positive for the disease. Fear gave me headaches for days before my arrival, but I felt that I needed to return. One day, shortly after I returned to work, I became so anxious trying not to contaminate my personal belongings that I locked my ID in my locker.

The ID had the key for the lock on the locker.

On the same day, I learned that my sister had tested positive for COVID-19. Thankfully, she was not ill, but here I was, wondering whether I would be positive, too, and how I would fare if I came down with the disease.

That day I kind of lost it. Unable to function, I left work early.

The experience took me to a place where I realized that all human effort to protect myself from this scourge would be in vain. To survive and function to the best of my ability, I would have to trust in the God who helped David pen the words of the text above. It is a text I often quote during the flu season when infected colleagues and patients cough with impunity around coworkers. Now, more than ever, we must quote this text, repeat it, believe it, and live it. I pray that those of you reading this have come through the pandemic unscathed. We may have lost friends or loved ones, but even when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, God still comforts and leads us with His rod and His staff. I pray that He will bless you with His mercy, comfort, and protection.

Raylene McKenzie Ross