I was thinking about how my sweet grandbaby has recently learned to fall asleep without being rocked and held. I’ve watched him do this. I’m envious! It seems like I’ve lost the ability to get into bed at the end of the day and just melt from the exhaustion of it all. My body will not relax. And I watch this little guy just slowly and contentedly drift off into dreamland. Why is he able to do this and I’m not?
Well, he isn’t hungry. He’s tired. He’s sitting in a little hammock that holds him securely in place and even gives off a soothing vibration. He’s got his favorite snuggly. He has no physical needs interfering with his tiredness. He’s at home. He’s with the people who love him and care for him and make him their number one priority. He hears their voices and knows they are near.
At the same time, these are the same people with whom he has experienced the painful head bonk due to a not-yet-developed neck trying to hold up his head. He’s experienced hunger at different times throughout the day not understanding that bottles require making. He’s been confused, waking in a completely different place than the place he fell asleep because he doesn’t realize that the world is bigger than his home. He’s been afraid in the middle of the night waking up alone in his crib not yet understanding that his mommy and daddy also need to sleep at night.
But because of the daily proven all-consuming love of his mommy and daddy, even as a little baby he knows he is taken care of. He’s experienced enough life with them to know they are his security. This is the confidence that comforts him into sleep.
God’s word and His “judgments of old” can be my confidence and comfort. His proven character recorded in the Old and New Testaments, as well as the memories of my own experiences with Him confirming Him to be faithful, can feed my soul so that I have no need or fear or worry that is rising up in me preventing me from rest in my waking hours and from sleep in the night.
“This is my comfort in my affliction, for Your word has given me life. I remembered your judgments of old, O Lord, and have comforted myself.”
Psalm 119: 50, 52