It was the time of night that all moms look forward to, when the kids are in bed and the house is quiet. The other night, my husband and I had gotten the kids to bed a few minutes before. We’d had just enough time to sigh and begin to relax when we heard Jessica calling, “Lindsey! Lindsey!”
As my husband later related it to me, he went into the girls’ room to see what the matter was. “Lindsey’s not listening to me,” Jessica said.
My husband looked up into Lindsey’s top bunk, where Lindsey lay amidst all her stuffed animals and blankets. She was sacked out. “Jessica, she’s asleep,” Phil said.
“But she’s not listening to me!” Jessica insisted.
“Lindsey can’t hear you,” Phil repeated. “She’s asleep.”
“Oh. Okay,” Jessica said agreeably as what Daddy was saying finally clicked. “Lindsey’s tired.”
Phil settled her back down in bed, covered her up, and left the room. He came and told me about their conversation, and we both had a good laugh. Lindsey hadn’t been ignoring Jessica at all. She’d been asleep.
In fact, that was what Elijah suggested was going on when the prophets of Baal couldn’t elicit the desired response from their god on Mount Carmel. “Oh, Baal, answer us!” they begged.
“Hey,” Elijah said (I’m paraphrasing here), “maybe he’s busy. Or maybe he’s on a business trip. No, wait! I’ve got it. Maybe he’s asleep!”
Obviously, their god wasn’t asleep, because he was no god at all. He wasn’t real. But when it came time for Elijah’s God to respond, God sent fire from heaven to consume the sacrifices, the altar, and even the water around it. He wasn’t asleep. He was listening to what was going on the whole time.
Aren’t you glad God never sleeps? He never gets tired and has to check out of humanity’s concerns for a little siesta. He’s always listening to the prayers of His beloved children and watching what goes on with us. Unlike Jessica, we’ll never cry out for His attention, only to find out later that He didn’t hear us because He was sleeping.
There may be times when we cry out repeatedly, and it seems like God doesn’t respond. But it’s not because He’s sleeping. He’s not unaware of what goes on in our lives, and He’s not unconcerned. Just because we don’t get the response we want, when we want it, doesn’t mean He’s oblivious.
Over and over in the Bible, we’re told that God always watches over us and never grows weary. To me, that’s amazing. I try to be a vigilant mom, paying careful attention to my children and taking good care of them, but I can’t even approach God’s level of watchful care—especially considering that I need sleep, and He doesn’t.
He’s always awake and always attentive. He’s always concerned about everything we do, and everything that happens to us. Even while we sleep, He remains awake to watch over us and all His beloved children. So before we go to bed tonight, let’s take a minute to stop and thank God for staying awake so that we can go to sleep—for handling things for us so that we can check out for some rest when we need to. What an amazing God we have!
Psalm 121:4—Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.