Never Alone

In the last two weeks, I've lost more sleep than usual.  I'm feeling fine.  I don't have insomnia.  I'm not staying up past my bedtime.  It's simply that my granddaughter, Bella, who's not quite three years old, has been my sole responsibility while her mother was in the hospital.

Bella fights sleep with all that is within her in the first place.  Once she does go to sleep she wakes up several times a night.  Sometimes she just cries out in her dreams and quickly gets quiet again and settles back down. Sometimes her crying continues and I can settle her by just sitting beside her and patting her back until she falls back to sleep.  On other, more frustrating nights, she yells for me or gets out of her little toddler bed and makes her way to my room and cries inconsolably unless I take her in my arms to rock her or tuck her in beside me.

Bella needs the presence of someone to soothe her into the peace of sleep.  Now that her parents are home from the hospital and staying with us for a few more weeks, there are more "someones" to help with her nighttime cries. Ultimately our goal is for her to sleep through the night in her own bed, allowing everyone else a good night's sleep as well.

Tonight I sang a lullaby to her that I remembered singing to her daddy.  It talked about the nearness of God in the night and I was reminded that both in the natural night and in the night seasons of our lives when it is dark and we feel alone, the truth is that we never are.

Joshua 1:9 says, "Have I not commanded you?  Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."

Romans 8:38-39 says, "For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

There are many, many more scriptures that talk about this ever-present God who is with us in all circumstances.  All through both the Old and New Testament, He reassures us that we don't have to deal with all the issues of life on our own. 

Years ago, I heard a story about a little boy who had trouble going to sleep in his room alone.  His mother told him that God would be with him.  He said, "But I need somebody with skin on!"

In this Christmas season, I remember that God did have "skin on" in the person of Jesus.  Matthew 1:23 says, "Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel, which is translated, "God with us". 

I hope Bella learns to calm herself in the night, both for her rest and for ours, but more than that, I pray that she knows a Jesus who will be with her through everything she experiences in this life - both joyful and painful and that she will know in the depths of her spirit that she is never alone.