Breakfast means Bible and history time in the Biever family. On good days, the breakfast is balanced and we begin our day together. On bad days, breakfast is whatever we can grab. Every day starts with a Bible reading — dad, mom, and kids. Divine Providence often ensures that day’s reading directly pertains to our immediate needs. Our reading yesterday was the Twenty-third Psalm. Once more, I read the words, “He restoreth my soul.” As I read those familiar words, screenshots of this Psalm flashed through my heart.
Thirteen years ago, Richard and I prepped for PUBS (Percutaneous Umbilical Blood Sampling) during a high-risk pregnancy. My body was destroying our son’s platelets in utero. PUBS was very risky in a time of 2-D ultrasound. A geneticist would locate the umbilical cord via ultrasound, and then a neonatologist pushed a needle through to reach it. A blood sample would be drawn, run (literally) to a lab to test it, while the neonatologist kept the needle in place. We waited for the lab results, while the neonatologist held the needle in place, in the umbilical cord. When the lab call came, they would do a platelet transfusion and remove the needle.
Risks abounded. Neither the neonatologist nor I could move while we waited. I lay on an operating table, with my arms outstretched like a cross. The operating room had 2 medical teams and 2 crash carts — 1 for me, and 1 for the baby in the event of an emergency c-section. During the PUBS at the highest-risk time, there were 28 medical specialists in the operating room, including a Russian exchange team who wanted to observe the procedure. Richard was able to sit just behind me during the PUBS, keeping me calm and focused.
I asked for the minimum amount of sedative possible; this was all I could control. They used a local anesthetic, and I prayed. I was making baby steps back to God, and the sedative confused me. My prayer was a jumble of Bible verses and prayers I learned as a child…
Our Father, who art in heaven…
He leadeth me beside the still waters, He restoreth my soul…
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven…
Yeah though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me.
While praying through the PUBS, I felt the presence of the Lord every time. By the grace of God, the PUBS all went well. The last one was cut short because our son discovered the needle in the umbilical cord and started to kick it. Our son survived. Our prayers were answered.
Three years later, the Twenty-Third Psalm again came into our lives. We were homeschooling our daughter in kindergarten. Our son, now 3, had speech therapy 4 days weekly and music therapy once weekly. My daughter’s reading lessons that year took place in an elementary school hallway and a waiting room in a rehab. clinic. For Easter, we had a picture book of the Twenty-third Psalm. First, we read the book. By Easter, she was to have the full Psalm memorized.
The day she finally memorized it, the week before Easter, she recited it for me in the rehab waiting room. Another parent in the waiting room fell silent as Elizabeth recited it to me. Afterwards, nearly in tears, she thanked us and told us that had made her Easter. “Carry that with you your whole life,” she admonished Elizabeth.
Now, we see the Twenty-third Psalm once again. This summer, instead of a dark night of the soul, I battled a dark summer of doubt and trepidation. How could we homeschool high school? What would the changes in our economy and national social climate bring? What did God want us to do with our business? What direction did He want us to take? Finally, we began to pray more and see the direction He has for us.
So, again, the Twenty-third Psalm enters our hearts. I cannot control the outcome of an election any more than I could control the outcome of those PUBS 13 years ago. All I can do is pray and trust, and He will restore my soul.
After Biever breakfast Bible time, I pondered these mysteries and how the Twenty-third Psalm carries us across the troubled waters. Elizabeth worked one algebra story problem at a time, and I could hear Nick practicing guitar. At that moment, he first played the “Star Spangled Banner” and then “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.”
God is just as present with us now as He was during those PUBS and in that waiting room. Our spiritual life is bigger than the outcome of an election, the price of a barrel of oil, the biology test score, and whatever number the Wheel of the Misfortunate Dow Index hits.
I pray my children will carry that Twenty-thitd Psalm in their own hearts, through their challenges, and will always remember there is a Good Shepherd ready to restore their souls, lead them beside the still waters, and walk with them through the valley of the shadow of death. If they do, they shall never want. Thou art with me, and with them, all the days of our lives.
