Do you ever have a sleepless night? What do you do? Text a friend to see if they are awake? Watch TV? Get up and look out your bedroom window to see what critters are at the bird feeder? Get a snack? Make a to-do list? Whatever you do, it’s your time to do it. Everyone is allotted the same amount of time.
Here’s one of my dumb-waste-of-time efforts to pass a minute or two – I count the number of seconds between red blinks of the smoke detector. There are 15. Then I try to see which is more accurate – counting one thousand one, one thousand two, etc. or one one thousand, two one thousand, etc. Before you waste your time trying this, they are the same. Almost immediately, however, I turn to more productive thoughts.
Although once I did the unthinkable – I got up, took my shower, and got ready for the day, destroying any chance of going back to sleep for the rest of the night.
More often than not,though, I pray. Other times, I may read. And then there are times I simply THINK. It is a great time to think – the middle of the night. No distractions. No phone ringing. I have a notepad and pen on my nightstand for just such nights as these. It even has a title page: “Thoughts in the Night.”
I do not think in long dissertations – just quick thoughts that flit through my mind, and since night thoughts have a way of losing their restraints and running free, I give you a few of my thoughts:
*God knows no time constraints. He is not on a schedule, so we never interrupt Him with our prayers or questions or a time of worship.
*When husband and wife love each other with Christ-like love, the marriage is indestructible even in the midst of the storms of life.
*The environment of a person shapes who he or she will be. But God can change a worldly person into the person he or she was meant to be.
*At night the created universe broadcasts its silent, but eloquent, symphony to the glory of its Creator.
*Deep calls to deep – waves of sorrow. Lick the dust – utter despair. Evil eye – selfish motives.
*Joseph, the 11th son of Jacob, was ancestor to two judges. Joshua and Deborah were descendants from the tribe of Ephraim, the second son of Joseph. Gideon and Jephthah were from the tribe of Manasseh, the 1st son of Joseph. King Saul and the apostle Paul were from the tribe of Benjamin, Joseph’s younger brother. That’s a lot of fame for one who was sold into slavery by his half-brothers. I do not know of any of my ancestors or descendants who are renown, but that does not mean they are any less important or any less loved by God. Every person is created for a specific purpose, and He gives man the freedom to choose whether he wants to fulfill God’s purpose or follow his own agenda. His eternity rests on his choice.
*What the sun is to the earth is what God’s Word is to us.
*We will see ourselves as God saw us prior to Christ’s redemption, and then, we will know and understand the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Sometimes sleepless nights can be the greatest times to have Thoughts in the Night. Think about it. If I did not have sleepless nights, you might be staring at a blank blog page.