Waiting for Morning
I remember as a young child being awakened by night terrors and laying in bed too frightened to move my arm the few inches in the cold dark to reach the light switch. I would look out into the blackness of my small bedroom and see imagined boogeymen or creeping shadows and tuck myself deeper into the safety of my blankets. My eyes would wander to the window, lightly covered with lacy curtains. How late (or early) was it? Would it be light outside soon? How much longer would I lie in that frozen state before my room began to look normal again and my fears faded away?
Psalm 130:5-6
I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope.
My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for morning.
Reading about that imagery of watchmen, I wonder what it might have been like to be a watchmen along the high walls of Jerusalem thousands of years ago. Would those soldiers have peered out anxiously into the shadows of the night, looking cautiously for enemies who might try to bombard them under the cover of night? Would their eyes and bodies and souls have wearied as the night wore on, as they waited for the morning? I feel like I can see them, standing on the rocky edges of their beloved city, at 3 am, after imagining movement on the plains below, tired of fighting imaginary battles in their minds all night and struggling to keep their drooping eyelids open much longer. Their limbs stiff from heightened senses trying to stay alert, but muscles aching from a long night.
Do you feel like that too sometimes? Tired of living in a dark world? Waiting for morning to come? That time in our imminent future when God’s light will burst through our world so brightly that all darkness will be eliminated?
Tired of fighting imaginary and real battles day after day? We may or may not realize it, but we are in the midst of very real battles daily as we represent God in enemy territory. Standing up against evil and immorality and temptations day after day, night after night makes me long for the morning, when the enemy can’t creep up on me and catch me unguarded, unsuspecting of attack.
This year my family decided to participate in Lent, although we have not be brought up in a church tradition with Lent. I wanted to focus more on Christ’s suffering and resurrection and prepare my heart for the celebration of His resurrection, so we all decided to give up the television together and to spend time in devotions looking forward to Easter. At first, we mistakenly thought it would be 40 days of “fasting,” being unfamiliar with the process. But, then we realized, it is actually much longer because of weekends, etc. So, the days of quiet around our house have made us very aware of Easter’s approach. How many more days until Easter, Mom?
We are waiting for that day when we can finally celebrate, when life will get back to “normal.” And it makes me think that we are waiting in the same way for Jesus’ return to earth. How many days until He comes again? How many days until life is really “normal” the way He intended it to be with no more pain, more more sorrow, no more death and no more sickness?
So, we are waiting for the morning around here and waiting with excitement in our hearts, because we have hope that God’s morning Son will chase away fear and weariness and bring peace to our tired souls.
Waiting,
Heather Cox
That’s just really neat to think of the excitement and anticipationg your family feels compared to waiting and expecting Christ’s return. Great reminder to be waiting and watching.
What powerful words, Heather. You are right, it can get really exhausting this side of heaven. I too wait on His return.