Night watches

Not long ago damaging thunderstorms passed through this area. My children naturally were a little frightened by the thunder and lightening and the darkness when the electricity went out. As Liana said her bedtimes prayers, she drew on her memory of Psalm 139. "Lord, even the darkness is not dark to you. The night shines like the day. Darkness and light are the same to you." It comforted her to know God can see just as well in the dark.

I was thinking about this after the trash accident when we were getting ready for bed by candlelight. A crowd of men were gathered on our street right outside our bedroom window. They planned to work through the night to restore our electrical power. It was eerie to lie down to sleep while others labored so near. We couldn't forget they were there--their generator rumbling, lighting up the broken poles and wires. But it was strangely comforting to hear them clanging and pounding. We slept and didn't have to concern ourselves with fixing our electricity. The night crew took care of that and we could trust them to do their job. And they did, right on schedule.

Nothing happens that God doesn't see. He's at work behind all the scenes of our lives, preparing and fixing, building and restoring. "I think of you in the watches of the night." Psalm 63:6. Just as we think of him, he is always thinking of us. He can be trusted. Whatever our darkness, it doesn't scare God. No problem is too big to fix. Just because we can't imagine any solution doesn't mean God can't find one. He works all night for us, so we can sleep.