And a great windstorm arose, and waves beat into the boat so bad that it was already filling. But He was in the stern , asleep on a pillow. Mark 4:37

Jesus Christ, is God.  There is great mystery in the triune; God came down to earth.  Yet Jesus was also a human being.  He ate.  He got angry.  He enjoyed time with his disciples.  He wept.  And He slept, boy could he sleep.

Imagine if you can, the boat was probably rocking like the craziest amusement park ride; up and down, right and left, pitching violently back and forth.  The sound must have been deafening; the roar of the wind blasting across the water.  There was probably added in a high pitched whistle of the wind through the small boat’s rigging.  And the waves were pounding the boat making it shudder and crashing over the sides into the boat. There may have even been terribly bright light with the flashes of lightning and the oppressive boom of thunder.  Yet there was Jesus, sound asleep.  One has to ponder:  “How did He do that?”

Now fast forward to today.  The room is dark and silent.  No storm rages around us.  It is just warm or cool enough.  There is not the slightest bit of personal danger to awaken us.  Yet there we lay or maybe even sit up.  There is a storm.  The storm has a fierceness of the strongest hurricane threatening to dash us against the rocks of our lives.  The storm is in our head or maybe our heart.  It vexes our very spirit.  And try as we might, sleep is nowhere to be found; it is a distant memory.

Whether we know it or not; that storm is a storm of our making.  It is a storm fueled by our fears of the approaching day and the regrets of the day gone by.  This time instead of many fretting and one sleeping, we find ourselves alone as those in our house or we at least believe our neighbors blissfully continue their slumber.  We hang on for dear life hoping not to be swept overboard into the depths of despair and hopelessness. We wonder will we ever enjoy the blessing of sleep again.

What can we learn from Jesus about this?  How did He do it?  What help is there for us knowing that we are not God?  Jesus Christ knew and fortunately did not keep it a secret.  “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all things shall be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33)  There are two more things we know about Jesus.  He prayed.  Even being God on earth, He prayed to His (and our) Heavenly Father.  Jesus also never worried.

And I believe those two are the keys.  Jesus slept.  We sleep.  God never sleeps.  The enemy satan does not sleep.  Satan will try to enter into our sleep to find a weakness where he can torment us.  Our nightly prayer can be: “Father bless my sleep and protect me from the attacks of satan.  Even while in the depths of slumber may I still be seeking Your Kingdom, through the Holy Spirit that dwells within me.”

Our Heavenly Father will protect us always; even in our sleep.  He will say to our personal storm as Jesus said to the natural storm “Peace, be still” and immediately the calm will come.  May it be that we can all find the blessed, renewing, peaceful sleep of Jesus Christ.

Amen