While Nora sleeps she often moves around her bed – she’ll bang her head once she’s successfully pushed pillows out of the way or she’ll hang half way off the bed or she’ll fall off the bed completely. She likes to talk in her sleep. But mostly I think she likes to make sure that I am still there.
She will “check in” with me by requesting I put the blanket back on top of her or just call my name until I confirm in some way that I am still around (often all I manage is a grunt).
Last week she fell off the bed and when I happened to wake up in the middle of the night I found her on the floor, scooped her up, placed her back in the right spot, and I went back to bed.
Later in the night I heard her call “Save me Mommy!” from what sounded like the far end of her bed. And sure enough when I got up to “save her” she was half way off the bed — but this time she woke up and realized what was happening and so she called out for help.
This scene seems like a good reflection of what our relationship with Jesus can be like.
The bed is our life and we can go along living just fine in it all cuddled on our pillows and under our blankets. Those times are when we are in a good relationship with Jesus.
We can even toss and turn in our beds – this could represent either struggling with our relationship or perhaps still having a good relationship with Jesus but just be struggling with some “life things” that are getting in the way of a solid, strong, good relationship with Him. But we are still there in relationship with Him.
Having fallen out of bed is like no longer being in relationship with Jesus. Perhaps we’ve fallen away from the church or from praying or from ever taking the time to think about Jesus. Those outside the bed live life out on their own and either don’t know or don’t remember that there is a comfortable bed available to them. “Life is life and that is all there is” they might think and so they go along living for themselves, never worried about having a relationship with Jesus.
But while falling out of bed? This is a critical moment! In this moment we still remember Jesus and we have a relationship with him. We may have started to fall away but we either long for a relationship again or we at least recognize we should long for a relationship. We are in that crucial space of choosing a life lived in the bed or on the floor. When we know well enough (or can think clearly enough) we want to choose the bed – we want to stay in relationship with Jesus – and so we cry out “Save me!”
And like a mom coming to “save” her kid from falling out of bed Jesus rushes towards us. He scoops us up. He places back on the bed. He offers us a pillow and a blanket. He stands ready to swoop in and do it again – we just need to remember to cry out Him “Save me, Jesus!”
Give God Your Yes 