Taking a nap can be an amazingly refreshing experience. Yet, it can also be an alarming reminder that we are human and we need rest. Often I hear myself telling my wife, “I need a nap.” As I stop and think about that, it announces I have reached the limits of my resources and require a refueling from my Heavenly Father. And then I am reminded that He is the One Who created me with a need for sleep.
Taking a nap can also be an escape for us from reality and from responsibility. If I am facing something difficult or stressing, I can talk myself into taking a nap very easily. Yet, when I awake the issue or situation is still there needing to be dealt with. Sleeping doesn’t make it go away, though it may give me new energy to try to handle it.
Yet taking a nap can be a wonderful surrender, as well as a reminder, to a Lord in Who’s control we are abiding, that we are able to rest under His authority, knowing His power and love are protecting us.
It also is a reminder, as the psalmist says, “Lord, make me to know my end, and what is the extent of my days, I am poor and needy, remind me that my days are fleeting.” Ps. 39:4
So something as simple as our bodies demand for sleep is a bold reminder that we are but creatures and we have a Creator. Yet, how hesitant are we to acknowledge especially to ourselves that we are human beings with limitations and who are growing older and more feeble. We exercise and try to eat right to maintain our health, but in the end, we need a nap.
Keeping this reality of our weakness in mind need not be a source of despair, but a means of seeking and seeing God. “As for me,” the psalmist writes, “I am poor and needy, but the Lord remembers me” (40:17). Our condition is one that drives us to dependence, but it is far from without hope. Whatever we are facing when we wake up, the Lord is there not only to help us face it but also to go through it with us.
