Children - Dene's Blog

Catching A Dream

1/19/2015 0 Comments

When we kept our grandsons last spring, twenty-month-old Judah usually climbed into my lap every evening as we sat at the table for a final cup of coffee. It took me a minute the first time his little hand reached out in the air, but finally I realized he was trying to catch the steam wafting over my mug, and was completely mystified when it disappeared between his little fingers.
    A lot of people spend their lives trying to catch the steam, vapors that seem solid but disintegrate in their grasping hands. They do it in all sorts of ways, and all of them are useless.
    Do they really think they can stop time? Over 11,000,000 surgical and nonsurgical cosmetic procedures were performed in this country in 2013, and we aren’t talking medically necessary procedures. The top five were liposuctions, breast augmentations, eyelid surgeries, tummy tucks, and nose surgeries.*
    Then there are the folks chasing wealth and security. Didn’t the recent Great Recession, as it is now called, teach them anything? Others are striving to make a name for themselves. These are usually the same folks who tell Christians how pathetic we are to believe that some Higher Power would ever notice we even exist on this puny blue dot in the universe. Yet there they all go looking for fame, fortune, notoriety, beauty, or even their version of eternal life. All of it is nothing more than a dream. It will disappear, if not in a natural disaster or an economic meltdown, then the day they die—and they will die no matter how hard they try not to. They are the ones grasping at dreams which are only a vapor that disappears in a flash.
    Our dream isn’t a dream at all. It is a hope, which in the Biblical sense means it is all but realized. Sin and death have been conquered by a force we can only try to comprehend, by a love we can never repay, and by a will we can but do our best to imitate. Yet there it is, not a wisp of white floating over a warm porcelain mug, but a solid foundation upon which we base our faith. Heb 6:19 calls it “an anchor.” Have you ever seen a real anchor? If there is anything the opposite of a wisp of steam, that’s it—solid and strong, able to hold us steady in the worst winds of life. Tell me how a pert nose and a full bank account can do that!
    The world thinks it knows what is real while we sit like a toddler grasping at steam. When eternity comes, they will finally see that they are wrong. Spiritual things are the only things that last, the only real things at all.

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal, 2 Cor 4:6-8.

*Information from the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery

Dene Ward

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The Sheltered Side of the House

12/3/2014 0 Comments

We live under a couple of huge live oaks, trees so big it would take half a dozen people holding hands to reach around them. That means when I planted a flower bed on the west side of the house under one of those trees, the lee side so to speak, I had to be careful what I put there. Anything with a “full sun” tag wouldn’t make it. But it also means that I can grow things outside that others might need to take inside on a frosty morning. The tree protects them with both the extra degree or two of heat it gives off and its shelter from the settling dew that crisps into frost on a winter morning.
   Isn’t that how we raise our children, on the sheltered side of life, and even on the sheltered side of the church? That is as it should be. Children shouldn’t need to worry about where their next meal is coming from. They shouldn’t be concerned with the office politics their parents must put up with. They certainly shouldn’t hear about church squabbles. Your job as a parent is to protect them from those things.
   But you can’t do that forever. Sooner or later they need to learn about people, about their imperfections, maybe even the danger they pose to others. That’s why we teach them that no one should touch them in certain places, that they should never get in the car with a stranger, or accept candy, or look for lost puppies. It’s unfortunate, but we do it because we love our children.
   I am afraid we are not that smart about teaching our children about problems among brethren. It isn’t just the false teaching wolves we need to teach them about, though more of that would be helpful. We seem to have raised a generation that thinks everyone out there is harmless and means well because they speak in syrupy tones and sentimental mush-mouth. No, the thing we must be most careful about is how they see us handling the disappointments with our brethren. What they see us do and say can make or break their spiritual survival.
   When Keith was preaching full time, we saw people who claimed to be Christians acting in every way but that. We saw couples at each other’s throats. We saw family cliques. We received physical threats. We were tossed out on our ears more than once for his preaching the truth. It may be that the only thing that kept us both faithful was realizing how these things might affect our children if we didn’t handle them carefully.
   When they were old enough to understand what was happening, we never blamed the church. We never blamed God. We told them that sometimes people were not perfect, even good people--sometimes they just made a mistake. I was NOT going to let what those people had done to us cost my children their souls. They were what mattered.
   As they grew older, we talked often about being faithful to God, not to a place or a group. We reminded them about Judas. What would have happened if the other apostles had let Judas’s monumental failure run them off? What about Peter, their erstwhile leader? If everyone had given up because of his denial there would have been nothing for him to return to upon his repentance. The mission of the church depended upon those men staying faithful regardless. God was counting on them. We told them over and over, you never let what someone else does determine your faithfulness. God expects you to do the right thing no matter what those people do. I had to learn to control my depression and discouragement and not give my children cause to leave the Lord.
   We planted our children on the sheltered side of the house, but then we moved them slowly one foot at a time to a place where the sun would beat down on them and the cold would leave frost on their leaves. Finally they were as inured as possible from the effects of other people’s failures, including our own. If they ever fall away, they know better than to blame someone else.
   Be careful what your children hear you say about your brethren. Be careful what they see in your actions and attitudes. Sooner or later they will need to stand the heat of the noonday sun and the bitter cold of a spiritual winter. Don’t give them an easy excuse not to.

For there must be also factions among you, that they that are approved may be made manifest among you. 1 Corinthians 11:19

Dene Ward

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Read the Buttons!

11/21/2014 0 Comments

“Buttons! Buttons! Read the buttons!” and so for the fortieth time that week I sit down with my two year old grandson Judah and read Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons. And every time we reach the page where Pete loses his last button but doesn’t let it get him down because “buttons come and buttons go,” and where Pete looks down at his buttonless shirt hanging open and the author asks, “what does he see?” Judah springs up, holds his little arms high over his head with a big grin on his face and says, “His bel-ly but-ton!” with exactly the same amount of glee and excitement as the first time he ever heard the book read.
   He loves that book and the other two Pete the Cat books he has, as well as the one called Click, Clack, Boo, plus the one based on Ezekiel 37 called Dem Bones. That week we babysat we learned by the third day to be careful what we said or it would remind him of one of those books and he would toddle off to find it and ask for it to be read not once again, but three, four, five times again.
   Yet here we sit with a shelf full of Bibles, every version you can imagine, amplified and not, written in and bare, paragraphed and versed, and now even some in large print, and do we ever have the same amount of desire to read it as a two year old who can’t even read it to himself yet? He knows those “Pete” books so well you can leave off a word and he will fill it in. You can say the wrong word and he will shout, “No! No! It’s ______!” You can mention one word completely out of context and he will immediately think of that book and go looking for it.
   Yet we seem loathe to pick up what is supposed to be our spiritual food and drink, the lamp that lights our way in the dark, and the weapon to fight our spiritual battles. We moan over daily reading programs, especially when we get to Leviticus or the genealogies. We complain when the scripture reading at church is longer than 5 verses, especially if we are one of those congregations that, like the people in Nehemiah, stand at the reading of God’s Word. We gripe when the Bible class teacher asks us to read more than one chapter before next week’s class. What in the world is wrong with us?
   This little two-year-old puts us to shame. Just from hearing it read, he can quote practically a whole book, several of them, in fact. His whole face lights up when you read it to him yet again. I have to admit, Keith and I would occasionally try to hide those books by the end of a day. We may not do that with God’s Word, at least not literally, but leaving it to sit on the shelf and gather dust isn’t much different.

I rejoice at your word like one who finds great spoil. I hate and abhor falsehood, but I love your law. Seven times a day I praise you for your righteous rules. Great peace have those who love your law; nothing can make them stumble, Psalms 119:162-165.

Dene Ward

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Motivators

11/12/2014 0 Comments

    Several years ago I was teaching the fourth grade Bible class when the subject of Heaven came up. One of our nine-year-olds was refreshingly candid. “From what I hear about Heaven,” she began, “it’s going to be just like going to church forever what with all that singing and praising God, and I am not sure I want to do that.”

    I laughed that day, but I have thought about it a lot. All those descriptions of Heaven are supposed to be motivators, and this little girl was not motivated. “If you’re good you get to sit still forever and listen to boring sermons.” What have we done? We know those descriptions are figurative. We know there will be no streets paved with gold. Gold is notoriously soft. Can you imagine what it would look like by the time we all walked on it? Yet, even though we know these things, we seem to have missed the point.

    Those first century Christians lived a day to day existence. They prayed for their “daily bread” because they had no idea if they would have enough that day, let alone tomorrow. The farmers among them existed at the mercy of the weather and natural disasters. The shopkeepers and artisans lived at the mercy of the economy. No one was going to “bail them out.”

    To those people, a place so wealthy that gold and precious jewels were used as construction material, meant security. It meant rest from working long hours day after day to simply exist.

    Those people lived under the rule of a foreign king. Doubtless they had all seen wars and battles. They knew, in fact, that the Barbarian Hordes could still come over the mountains and wipe them out. Did 9/11 cause you some concern? Has it made you worry more about the possibility of terrorists under every bush? Those first century Christians lived with that sort of uncertainty every day of their lives. In fact, they probably had more safety as a conquered people than ever before. But the picture of a huge city with huge walls meant safety and peace forever. Security—that is what those pictures of Heaven were all about, not materialism. I have no doubt that if John were writing to us, he would use other motivators.

    And that is my point today—give your children motivation that means something to them. Say something like “Heaven is a place where you never have to go to bed. It’s a place where you can play all day and never be scolded.” And as they get older perhaps, “Heaven is a place with no homework, a place where you can play video games as long as you want without your thumbs aching, a place you can hang out with your buddies forever.” You tell them that whatever Heaven is like, it is as wonderful to the soul as these physical things are to their physical lives. As they get older, you will have directed their training and teaching so that the motivators become more spiritual and less material.

    But you know what? There are still days I think Heaven should be a big kitchen I can cook in all day without my back hurting, with the dishes magically cleaning themselves, and with all the finished products looking exactly like the pictures in the cookbooks and tasting just as wonderful! Sometimes you need that sort of motivation and so do your children. .

    But at this stage of our lives, Keith and I have a different motivation—he knows he will HEAR those beautiful songs, and I know I will SEE the glory of God. Is that still just a little physically-minded and materialistic? Maybe, but it works.

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth are passed away; and the sea is no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven of God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband…having a wall great and high; having twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels; and names written thereon, are of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: And the building of the wall thereof was jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto pure glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald; the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprase; the eleventh, jacinth; the twelfth, amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the several gates was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass… and there shall in no wise enter into it anything unclean, or he that makes an abomination and a lie: but only they that are written in the Lamb's book of life, Rev 21:1,2,12,19-21,27.

Dene Ward

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I Choose...

10/20/2014 0 Comments

As we brought not-quite-five-year-old Silas home with us for Vacation Bible School last summer, he squirmed a bit in his booster seat, eying the long crowded highway ahead of us and the “boring” scenery of rolling green pastureland in Florida horse farm country.

   “How long will it be?” he asked, the perennial question of travelers.

   “It will be awhile,” I said, “but if you were to fall asleep, the trip would be over in a flash. Suddenly you would wake up and we’re there!”

   He lifted an eyebrow and gave me a skeptical look. “But I don’t like naps,” he firmly stated, with his little arms crossed.

   “Well,” I said with one of those what-do-you-do sighs, “that’s your choice. Either a long wait or a nap.”

   He thought a minute and finally, categorically stated with a firm nod on each word “I choose a long wait.”

   Five minutes later he was asleep. He never has been able to stay awake in a car, something I hope will change by the time he turns 16 and starts driving.

   I couldn’t help wondering how many of us look at the choices set before us and stubbornly make the wrong one. God tells us how dangerous the world is. He warns against deception and trickery. He tells us our salvation is our own responsibility so be careful who you follow. Yet even when we look at the choices side by side, we seem so drawn to the wrong ones. They are immediate. They are tangible. They are pleasant. The idea of something far superior in the future seems to be pie in the sky. “A bird in the hand…” the old saying goes, and we fall for it nearly every time.

   It would be so much easier if God made the choice for us, if he made the sleep overwhelm us involuntarily so the trip would be over in an instant, but where is the glory in a creature who cannot choose?

   The idea that God did not give us a choice is, of course, a fairly common theological doctrine. Yet it limits God in ability and creativity. It makes Him a respecter of persons. It makes Him unsympathetic and unapproachable, a tyrant who makes decisions seemingly at random, playing with the eternal souls of people as if they were plastic action figures. That is not the God of the Bible. There are too many heart-rending pleas for us to return. There are too many passages giving options to people in all sorts of situations, including whether or not they will serve Him for that to be true.

   He gave me a choice; he gave you a choice. Make the right one.

I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse: therefore choose life, that you may live, you and your seed, Deut 30:19.

Dene Ward

Truth and Consequences

9/15/2014 0 Comments

            What does it take for me to finally wake up and repent, or just examine myself for faults that need correcting and then get to work fixing them?

            Raising children and now, interacting with our grandchildren, reminds us of a basic truth of childrearing—reward or punishment must immediately follow the deed. A child’s attention span is short, and the younger he is, the more important the timing. Even a child younger than one can quickly learn what “No-no” means when it is accompanied by consistent motivation.

            But are we any better? Peter tells us that when God delays judgment for sin out of longsuffering and patience but we don’t respond, that we “willfully forget” (2 Pet 3:5-10). Paul says that when God forbears yet we do not repent, we are “despising his goodness” (Rom 2:4). It isn’t that we have the attention span of a toddler—we’re just plain stubborn.

            Is that any more mature than a toddler? We have all seen children who understand the consequences and take them anyway. We cluck at their lack of common sense, their apparent unwillingness to learn any way but the hard way. We wonder what sort of adults they will become.

            But you really don’t have to wonder. You are surrounded by them. Or, are you one of them?

Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. Ecclesiastes 8:11.

Dene Ward

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Wielding the Sword

9/8/2014 0 Comments

            We’ve done a lot of grandbaby-sitting this year. With this set of grandparents, that always includes some Bible study time.

            On one of those occasions, Silas and I sat at the table and made a sheepfold full of sheep with construction paper, cotton balls, markers, and glue. The lesson, of course, was “Jesus is the Good Shepherd,” so we also included a shepherd-Jesus and a wolf-Satan. On the tabletop we acted out Jesus protecting the sheep from the wolf.

            Not only was I dealing with a four year old, but a four year old boy. As soon as we disposed of the Devil, Silas exclaimed, “Raise him from the dead so Jesus can kill him again!” On that afternoon, the Devil died at least a dozen times. Eventually he stayed dead, but if nothing else, Silas will remember that Jesus can protect us from the Devil. I just hope he also learns when fighting is appropriate and when it isn’t, and that the war a Christian engages in is spiritual in nature.

            Some of us have as little discretion as a four year old. God has furnished us with a formidable sword, His Word (Eph 4:17; Heb 4:12). But like Peter, we often wield the wrong sword. While we know better than to hack people to pieces with a real weapon, we stab our interested neighbors in the hearts with brutal barbs and verbally assault the newborn Christians who haven’t had the time to learn everything we think they should have in ten seconds flat. We slash the weak because they are easy prey and instead of sowing the seed among the sinners who need it most, we skewer them with sarcasm and roast them over the coals of a threatened Hell, expecting the Lord to pin a medal of valor on our zealous chests.

            Yes, there is a time to swing the sword of the Spirit, especially when the weak and innocent are threatened or when the Lord Himself is affronted, but when we fight just for the sake of fighting, the Devil is winning instead of losing. “Put up your sword into its place,” Jesus told Peter, “for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.”

            Be strong and courageous. Take up the sword and fight. But don’t wield the wrong sword at the wrong time for the wrong reason.

And the Lord's servant must not strive, but be gentle towards all, apt to teach, forbearing, in meekness correcting them that oppose themselves; if peradventure God may give them repentance unto the knowledge of the truth, and they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him unto his will. 2 Timothy 2:24-26.

Dene Ward

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Walking the Dog

8/15/2014 0 Comments

            Recently Judah joined big brother Silas for his first overnight with grandma and granddad. Like his big brother, as soon as his feet hit the cool green grass, he fell in love with going barefoot and ran all over the place. Since he usually ran me into the ground, I decided that first morning that he could handle walking Chloe with me. I would have to slow our pace for him, but I was sure his active little legs could handle the distance.

            The boys and I started out ahead and then I called Chloe to follow. Usually she is out front waiting for me, prancing impatiently, but Chloe is not your average dog. She is a bit of an oxymoron—a scaredy-cat of a dog. She is positive that everything on two feet is out to get her. She is not afraid of us, nor of Lucas, but no one else can get near her. Not even, as it turns out, a twenty-month old toddler.

            But that didn’t keep the toddler from trying. As soon as he saw Chloe, Judah left the path along the fence and headed through the field toward her. As soon as Chloe saw Judah, she took off running. He sped up and I held my breath as he plowed through vines, briars, blackberries and stinging nettles. I took off after him, sure that his soft baby skin would be scratched, torn, and bloody. He single-mindedly waded on through, leaving a trail of bent and broken greenery behind, until finally I caught up and scooped him into my arms. With his mind still on his goal, he pointed toward Chloe and said, “Dog. Wuh-wuh-wuh-wuh-wuhf!”

            I checked him over and he was fine, not a mark on him, no blood, no rashes, no stickers poking out of tender little fingers or toes. So I put him down, this time on the garden path, and called Chloe to resume our walk--and it started all over again. Judah chased, Chloe ran, and I followed. This wasn’t going to work.   Finally I got the garden wagon, put Judah in it, and Chloe followed behind at what she deemed a safe distance--about thirty feet. But every time Judah’s head swiveled to her and his little finger pointed, she veered from the path and dropped back another foot or two, until reassured that the dangerous little predator wouldn’t come swooping in and nab her unexpectedly.

            We had gone out that morning to walk Chloe. Judah certainly didn’t have the goal in mind when we went for that walk. That’s why he couldn’t stay on the path. I realized not long afterward, though, that he did have a goal in mind. It was just not the same goal as mine. I wanted to walk the dog. He wanted to experience the dog.

            I think too many times we live our lives aimlessly. We just let it happen, and then wonder why things went south. We have no plan for improvement, no strategy for overcoming—we don’t even notice the temptation coming! I found dozens of verses using the words aim, goal, and purpose. I found others listing the things we should be looking for or to or toward. Do you really think God has no purpose for you?

            I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me. Psa 57:2.

            The LORD has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble. Prov 16:4.

            If God has a purpose for the evil people in the world, then certainly He has one for His children. So if He has a purpose for us, shouldn’t we be acting with purpose? We are familiar with the concept of “purposing” our contributions, but why do you assemble where you do? To be entertained? Because this group is loving and makes me feel good? Because I like the singing? I know a lot of people who assemble with those goals in mind. How about these instead: I assemble here to serve others, even if they don’t serve me; I am here to learn and be admonished, even if they do step on my toes; I am here to participate in those acts we are to do as an “assembly” even if I don’t particularly care for the method used in getting that done. Do you see? When I have this sort of purpose, it stops being all about ME.

            Why do you work for a living? Do you know the reason Paul gives? “So you may have something to share with anyone in need.” Eph 4:28. Is that why you work? I bet it’s not why your neighbor works. And here we get to the point. Judah and I did not share goals that morning, so we did not share paths either. Are you sharing your neighbor’s path, or are you on a better one? You ought to be.

            The world may look at how you live and shake its head. There you go trudging through tall grass, sharp thorns, and clinging vines when the path they are taking is so much easier. Paul had given up the goal of status among the Jewish leaders, along with potential wealth and fame. “But whatever gain I had I counted as loss for the sake of Christ,” he said. His goal in life had changed and so his path had as well. I am sure his former colleagues and teachers looked with disbelief on the things he left behind and the causes he took up. “But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Phil 3:7,13,14, just like that little toddler pressed on that morning.

            What is your goal? You should have one every day, not just on Sundays, although that would be a good start for a lot of people. Maybe the first thing you should do is look around and see who is on the same path you are. That might give you pause to consider.

He exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose, Acts 11:23.

Dene Ward

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Ping Pong Balls

8/14/2014 0 Comments

            Silas and I were visiting one of the rooms depicting the ten plagues during Vacation Bible School. Number seven was hail with thunder and lightning and fire running along the ground, the robed narrator told us as he stood before drawn curtains. The lights were dimmed, one of the curtains pulled open, and suddenly white hail fell from the sky, and glowing fire ran along the floor. The children oohed and aahed and squealed with delight. Then the curtain was drawn again, but not quite before the lights came up and I saw white ping-pong balls scattered all over the floor. The narrator quickly continued the tale, moving onto the plague of locusts depicted behind the other curtain in the room.

            Several minutes later we left for the next stop on our “journey” and, as we did, I leaned over and whispered to four year old Silas, “Wow! Did you see that hail?”

            “Yes,” he said, and then added, “Hail looks a lot like ping-pong balls, doesn’t it?”

            I wasn’t about to ruin the magic of the evening for him. The point of the week was to learn that God was the only God and He protected His people, and the church was doing an admirable job of it. Me? I never would have even thought of using ping-pong balls.

            But sometime in the future it will be time to teach Silas this lesson: if someone tells you it’s hail, but it looks like ping-pong balls, check it out yourself!          Do you know how many people have been deceived by false teaching, even though the truth was plainly in front of them, just because they wouldn’t question their “pastor,” their “elder,” their “reverend,” or their “priest?” Keith and I each have held studies where the student said, “Yes, I can see that, but that’s not what my _______ says.” Before much longer, the studies stopped. Why do we think our leaders are infallible?

            Look at Acts 6:7. So the word of God continued to spread, and the number of disciples in Jerusalem continued to grow rapidly. Even a large number of priests became obedient to the faith. The priests were teachers of the Jewish faith. Yet even they could see when they were wrong and convert to the Truth. Why not your leader, whatever it is you call him? Instead, Keith was told one time, “How dare you argue with a priest!”

            Paul was a man well-educated in Judaism, a man who lived “in all good conscience,” yet even he was convinced that he needed to change. He was also a Pharisee, one who respected the Law and knew it inside out. Many others Pharisees were also converted to Christianity (Acts 15:5). Despite their advanced knowledge, they discovered they were wrong about something and had the honesty to change.

            God will hold you accountable for your decisions, for your beliefs, and for your actions. Anyone who taught you error will also pay a price, but their mistake won’t save you. Jesus said, If the blind guide the blind, both shall fall into a pit, Matt 15:14.

            Don’t believe everything you hear. If it looks like ping-pong balls instead of hail, check it out yourself. Don’t fall for a lie because of who told you that lie. Doing so means you love that person more than you love God and His Truth.

With all deceit of unrighteousness for them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God sends them a working of error, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be judged who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 2 Thes 2:10-12.

Dene Ward

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Insomnia

8/13/2014 0 Comments

The car hummed along the highway as we carried our two grandsons to our home while mommy and daddy were away for a few days. They slept away most of the two plus hour long trip, waking in time to see the unfamiliar countryside sweep past on the last road “over the river and through the woods to grandma’s house.”

            They played the rest of the afternoon away, digging in the sand, chasing bubbles, and swinging on the old oak tree (the same one Daddy fell out of and broke his arm). Dinner came only after a bath for those two dirty-faced, dirty-footed little fellows, a tub full of bubbles and cups and pitchers to pour over each other. After their favorite mac and cheese, chicken nuggets and applesauce, it wasn’t long until their eyes were drooping and they were ready for bed. “The tired-er the better,” we thought, especially for that first night.

            They fell asleep quickly, twenty-month-old Judah in the “Pack and Play” and four year-old Silas by his own choice next to his little brother on the twin-sized airbed. We listened through the rest of the evening, but never heard a peep.

            However, at 4:52 a.m. I sensed something by my bed and woke to a small figure standing there in the starlight filtering through the curtains. Dark in the country is not like dark in the city. We have no streetlights—unless you live entirely too close to an uprooted city slicker who thinks he needs one, and we don’t. We have no concrete to reflect the moonlight either. When it’s dark, it’s dark, and if you are not used to navigating by God’s natural night lights, you think you woke up in a tomb.

            “Silas,” I whispered, “what’s wrong?”

            “All this dark is keeping me awake,” he said quite seriously, and even though I was sleepily thinking, “All this dark is supposed to keep you asleep!” I knew exactly what he meant. Even though we had left a nightlight right by his bedroom door, it was far darker than he was used to, and when he woke it troubled him.

            By then Granddad had wakened as well, and he took him back to bed and lay with him until he was once again snoring his soft little boy snores, not much more than five minutes afterward. He slept another three hours with no problem at all.

            I thought sometime later that week that this little boy had it right. The dark should be keeping us awake.

            Even the Old Testament faithful understood the concept of walking in the light. O house of Jacob, come let us walk in the light of Jehovah,
Isa 2:5. It seemed natural, then, for the Son to claim to be the light as well. I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life, John 8:12. And so, as children of God, we, too, are lights. For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of night or of darkness, 1 Thes 5:5.

            Unfortunately, the light has come into the world and the people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil, John 3:19. As “children of light” we should be opposite the world. We should not love the darkness; we should hate it.

            This will come more naturally if we mature to the point that we don’t just walk in the light and not walk in the darkness. Look at Eph 5:8: for at one time you were darkness, but now are light in the Lord. Do you see that? Light isn’t just something you walk in, it is something you become. Just as at one time you didn’t just walk in the darkness, you were darkness. We have completely changed our essence. No wonder we are supposed to hate the dark. No wonder the mere presence of it in the world, among our neighbors, our friends and even our family, should be keeping us awake at night.

            All this dark is keeping me awake Lord, should be a lament on every Christian’s tongue. Not only that, we should be actively trying to rid the world of that very darkness. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, Yes, rather, reprove them, Eph 5:11.

            If the darkness in the world isn’t enough to keep a “child of light” awake, perhaps he has become something else.

Arise, shine; for your light is come, and the glory of Jehovah is risen upon you. For, behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the peoples; but Jehovah will arise upon you, and his glory shall be seen upon you. And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Isa 60:1-3.

Dene Ward