Devotional.
During a heatwave earlier this year, when Jesse was eighteen months old, his bedroom at the top of the house hit 36°C (97°F) overnight.
In a house with no air conditioning, this was an issue.
He was asleep, but only just. Too hot to settle properly.
So in the middle of the night I lifted him out of his cot, carried him downstairs and laid him in the travel cot in our room, where he slept properly for the rest of the night.
He never woke up. Not when I lifted him, not on the stairs, not when I laid him down.
The next morning he woke up in a different room with no idea how he'd got there. As far as he knows, nothing happened that night. He went to sleep, and he woke up.
But someone had been watching him the whole time. Someone noticed he was too hot, got up, and carried him somewhere he could rest.
He just never knew about it.
I wonder how many nights I've had like that.
Every so often I get to find out. I can think of times when, in my mind, everything was going wrong.
What I'd prayed for didn't happen, and I couldn't see the point of any of it.
It was only later, once the whole thing had played out, that I could look back and see God working through it.
The part I'd been so upset about turned out to be Him moving me where I needed to be.
Those are the ones I got to see. There must be far more I never will, nights I slept straight through while He was carrying me somewhere.
David wrote Psalm 4 with trouble all around him, and he still ends it like this:
"In peace I will both lay myself down and sleep, for You alone, Lord, make me live in safety." Psalm 4:8 (WEB)
The trouble was still there when he lay down. What let him sleep was knowing who was keeping watch.
Jesse couldn't know he'd been carried. He was eighteen months old and fast asleep.
I can know. The times I've seen God at work looking back are my reason to trust Him in the times I can't see.
So if you lie down tonight with something still unresolved, or something that feels like it's going wrong, you can rest knowing God is watching over you.
He sees what you can't. He notices before you do. And a lot of His care happens while you're fast asleep.
You may wake up tomorrow with no idea what He did in the night.
He'll still have done it.
Prayer.
Lord, I rest peacefully, knowing You watch over me, and I'm learning that rest comes from knowing who is keeping watch, even when I haven't figured everything out.
I lie down with things unresolved, with worries I haven't settled, with situations that still feel like they're going wrong, and I'm asking You to quiet what keeps me awake.
Teach me that You are never off duty, never asleep, never missing what I need, that Your care doesn't pause when my eyes close or my strength runs out.
So much of what You do for me happens without my knowing, moments of protection I never noticed, ways You moved me that I only understand much later, if ever.
Help me trust You in the nights I can't see what You're doing, to let go of needing to watch over everything myself, to believe someone far more capable already is.
Remind me of the times I looked back and saw Your hand working through what felt like trouble, and let those memories become my reason to trust You in what I can't yet see.
Give me deep, restful sleep tonight, a settled heart, a mind that stops rehearsing tomorrow, and the confidence that You are watching over me.
Let me lay myself down in peace, Lord, resting in Your care, certain that You are keeping watch.
In Jesus' name,
Amen.
