Every night, Philip and I get Callie Grace and Justus to sleep by reading and singing to them. Justus, who has not yet mastered personal pronouns, will say “Sing to you?” when you tell him it’s bedtime. There’s always a little note of panic in his voice, as if for some reason he’s afraid that we will change our minds and tell him he’s on his own. Even though we’ve never done this, not even when he wakes up multiple times in the night, and each time will ask, “Sing to you?”, to get him back to sleep. Callie Grace likes for us to read her a story and then sing to her. She’s always very concerned about the number of stories and songs that we will read and sing to her, sometimes to the point that she can’t enjoy the story being read to her, out of anxiety that it will be the last one.
Does this at all remind you of your relationship with God?
How many times does He fulfill his promises to us? How many times has He come through for us, led us through the dark places, rejoiced with us in the beautiful places, staying close to us in all circumstances, in every situation? And yet, how frequently do we experience the fear that He is not going to continue? How many needless hours are spent in worry over the future, as if we’ve been set adrift and are now entirely alone?
Jill Phillips is a Christian artist that I have come to love, and she has a song called Daily Bread. Here are the lyrics to it:
There’s a restlessness in the soul of man
Nobody’s tamed it yet
You never fail to keep any promises
But somehow we forget
That you’re always right on time
You feed us all with a silver spoon
And like your foolish kids
We start worrying about what we’re gonna do
When the hunger comes again
But you’re always right on time
With an open hand
You have exactly what I need
Daily bread
Daily bread
You have the wisdom and the patience
We need the grace to see it clear
Too soon and we take it all for granted
Too late is more than we can bear
So you’re always right on time
With an open hand
You have exactly what I need
Daily bread
I have found this song to be incredibly helpful in reminding me of such a simple truth, a truth that the Bible states so explicitly in Hebrews 13:5 – God will never leave us or forsake us.
Callie and Justus finally drift off to sleep when they let go of their fears, and they find rest. And in Christ, so do I.
