Time to Sleep

 by Macy Johnson

“God will bring to judgment both the righteous and the wicked,

for there will be a time for every activity, a time for every deed.”

(Ecclesiastes 3:17 NIV)

 

I closed my eyes and asked my heavenly Father to please help me fall asleep. Lying on my back, I heard the neighbor’s Labrador Retriever barking outside my window. I flipped over to my side. My husband, Jeff, breathed rhythmically next to me.

 

My thoughts drifted to Sunday’s worship service. The Men’s Ensemble sang a melancholy blessing in Elaine Hagenberg’s “You Never Walk Alone.” The tune turned over in my mind repeatedly.

 

I recalled a story our pastor recounted about his nineteen grandchildren. He said, “I ask them why they must go to bed. When no one responds, I tell them because it will not come to you!” I wished sleep would come that easily. To be like a child and soundly drift off to sleep. So many unrelated events spun in the web of my brain.

 

Our human bodies require sleep. Why is it that I can fall asleep sitting up anywhere or anytime I close my eyes, but I cannot fall asleep when I crawl in bed? Even melatonin does not help.

 

Will we sleep in heaven? I do not think so. All the tasks I want to get out of bed and take care of will not be interrupted by time to sleep in eternity. I hope to be busy enough, but not too much so. I hope to be alert and active and attentive to every word from the mouth of the Lord.

 

I believe there will be time to be still and quiet in heaven and time to think and reflect. Dreams will become reality.

 

I will submit to times of sleep and activity as the Lord directs. I hope you will, too!