The plan was so simple: read
facebook statuses for a few minutes and then head to bed early to catch up on
my growing sleep deficit. As I sat down
to accomplish my plan, a flash of lighting darted in my window followed by a
boom of thunder that shook my kitchen walls.
Ahhhhh, a storm. I stood up and
went to my kitchen door to enjoy the storm that surrounded the ranch from every
side. And as I watched, it came closer
until the rain began to parade noisily on my tin roof. I sighed and listened to the cannoning
thunder. As I listened, a different thud
made its way to my ears. Someone was
knocking on my door that connects to the girls’ dorm.
Not excited
in the least about this development, I went to see what was up. I opened the door to find two girls about
eleven or ten years old wrapped in their blankets and looking at me with scared
eyes.
“We can’t
sleep, Renee. The lights keep on
flickering on and off and the thunder is so loud and scary.”
My plan for
an early bedtime had not foreseen this, but I thought I might be able to
salvage the situation.
“Aw, I’m
sorry. You know what, though? I love thunder storms because God is showing
his power and if God’s on my side and that’s how powerful he is, I know I don’t
have to be afraid. He’ll protect me.”
They
blinked back at me, completely unappeased with my half-hearted attempt to
comfort them and something in my heart whispered that this wasn’t a time to
dismiss their fears and send them back to bed.
This meant that my early bedtime plan was now on life support. My only hope was that the storm would pass
quickly.
I let them
in my room and we sat on my floor and began to talk. They explained to me all the things they were
afraid of; the figures they saw in dark corners, the tales that haunted their
sleep, the imaginings that kept them awake at night. And they asked. They asked why I wasn’t afraid, they asked if
the things they feared were real, and what they could do when they were afraid.
And as the
storm outside slowly quieted, I told them.
I told them that I was afraid sometimes, I told them that the things
they feared were real sometimes, but that we have a shelter in the storm always,
a God to whom even the darkness is not dark.
We talked about the devil, his limited power, and his desire to make us
fear him instead of God. But I got to
tell them with confidence that my God is greater than this devil who tries to
make us tremble in fear. My God wants us
to tremble in awe and worship at his great love that envelops us when he could
and should smite us.
As I told
them about my God, they asked more questions.
How was I patient with them? How
could they learn to be patient with others?
How come I didn’t seem to get very angry, but when they promised
themselves they would curb their temper, they couldn’t?
We sat in
my room, talking as it grew later. And
when the storm had finally abated and when all of our eyelids began slipping
down our eyes, we sank into our beds.
Right before I fell asleep, I
looked at the time. Definitely much
later than I had planned to go to bed.
But when I thought about it, I
realized I had just gained something better than a few hours of sleep. I just had the chance to talk to two of the
girls personally about my great God. And
this time, unlike so many others, I wasn’t the one starting the conversation,
they were. They wanted to know more
about this God. They wanted to know how
he touches their lives. And if my plans
have to be derailed for that to happen, it’s more than okay with me.
"Even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is as bright as day,
for darkness is as light with you."
-Psalm 139:12
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