Dawn Waking

"He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 18:2-3)

I was reminded of this experience with both my children when they were between 2 to 3 years old. Occasionally, especially when the child was getting new teeth, the discomfort would wake the child up at dawn. What to do when it's 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning, you desperately need your sleep and your toddler are standing by your bed with a blanket in hand? The experts say that you should walk the child to his/her bedroom and firmly tell the child to go back to sleep. I found following this advice would generate resistance and prevent you from resuming your sleep because he/she will just walk back to your bedroom and wake you up again. What the child want is a comforting embrace from the parents. By inviting the child to crawl into the bed and hold the child, both parent and child resume sleep faster.

I have woken up at 4 o'clock in the morning almost every night lately and couldn't get back to sleep. My personal worries came swirling around. I worry about a lot of things especially my research project and my family.

What to do? Naturally, as a Christian, I use these times, when sleep will not come, to pray. However, the thing that really helps me to get back to sleep is the mental imagery of myself crawling into God's embrace like a small child and find comfort there. I am truly grateful for a heavenly Father who is able to take care of my needs. I am also humbled by this privilege to come to Him with any little silly things that cause me to worry unnecessarily.