God gives to His beloved

4:19 p.m. Today's project was to attend our 9:45 Sunday service with our daughter and her fiance, at Calvary Chapel Moreno Valley. I had already received a lovely card from Heidi and was looking forward to opening Steve's card after church.

The morning had not begun auspiciously, to say the least. I awoke at 2:30 a.m. to find that Steve had gotten up and was just standing around in the dark. The issue with his getting up is that he takes off his C-pap mask, of course, and then goes without it the rest of the night. His breathing has improved, but noisy old habits can come back intermittently.

At about 3 a.m., I took two aspirin, went into the bedroom next door and fell asleep, only to hear footsteps in our bedroom about 4:30! There was Steve, up and walking around. I thought, Is this the "sundowning" that Alzheimer's victims begin experiencing? I directed him to get back to bed, and he did, so I did get some rest, sleeping 38 minutes past my 7 a.m. Sunday alarm! I went into our room and found that Steve had been up extra early, so I reminded him to put the dogs out. What an exhausted wreck I was!

When it came time to post my daily Bible verse on Facebook, God's sense of humor contained in this particular promise was impossible to miss. Psalm 127:2 says:

It is vain for you to rise up early,

To sit up late,

To eat the bread of sorrows,

For so He gives His beloved sleep.

I concluded that despite the morning I'd had, God's promises are not only true in the realm of eternity, but His promise of care throughout the night and into the day is true for every 24 hour cycle we live! On a practical basis, I took the ironic interjection of this verse into my morning to mean that God would protect me from car accidents and even from falling asleep in church due to lack of sleep!

As foolish and fearful as we can get occasionally, aren't you glad our Heavenly Father loves us as much as he does? Infinitely far beyond even the love we mothers have for our children! Pastor John reminded us this morning of a favorite verse, Isaiah 49:15:

Can a woman forget her nursing child,

And not have compassion on the son of her womb?

Surely they may forget, Yet I will not forget you.

But my favorite part of this passage is verse 16:

See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands;

Your walls are continually before Me.

Imagine! God has engraved me on the palms of His hands!!

His grace was abundantly in place during our delicious dinner of Chicken Kiev, prepared by Heidi, with salad accompaniment from Heather and Nick. Kriss and Marisela brought a delicious "Bionicos" fruit salad for dessert. The love, silliness and laughter that equals family time were utterly refreshing and relaxing. I was still a bit sleepy, but no one can doze off in the racket that characterizes a Kruckenberg gathering.

The dishwasher's humming, the coffeepot is set, and bed's sounding good. I pray a peaceful night's rest to all of my friends and their families, that we may rise tomorrow and serve God with fervency and love!