This time of year my mind becomes cluttered, not that it's not already, but as Christmas approaches my head becomes so full of "stuff" that I sometimes have a hard time going to sleep, or staying asleep, at night. Couple that with the fact that I'm at the age when it's hard to sleep sometimes anyway, and you have the makings of one of those nights when a person has to either just lay there and fight or get up and find something constructive to occupy one's mind until it thinks it's ready to rest. Last night was classic.
To make a fairly short story even shorter, I fought for awhile then decided to get up and DO some of the things that I was just laying there THINKING about doing...like tying those new Christmas ornaments on our dining room chandelier...and making those red bows to put on the deck. I'm not a particularly good bow maker, so I was mildly excited that they turned out halfway decent. Only halfway. Good thing they're going to be outside...out of close-range vision...amongst the birds and squirrels and greenery.
I finally decided that I'd give sleep another chance. By now it's around 2:15, 2:30. I think the last time I checked the time (you HAVE to do that when you're fighting to get to sleep, don't you?) it was around 3:15, so I figure I was asleep by 3:30.
God is so good...He knows I need to get up by 7:00-ish on Sundays in order to get to worship team practice on time, which I'm usually late for anyway, so what did He do this morning.? Around 7:05 I'm jolted awake by a sound outside the bedroom window...seems one of our precious (loud) little birds had been commanded by God to give me a wake-up call. (He knew I had refused to set my clock.) It was as if the little darling were saying, "God-says-"Get-up!' God-says-'Get-up!'" Yes, Lord. Thank You.
