Life on the Pasture

So how has your sleep pattern been? With the ever-changing news and concerns about what will happen next, sometimes it’s hard to turn one’s mind off and relax. If you’re like me, you may wake up an hour or two before the alarm and then immediately begin planning for the day’s events, thinking about your loved ones, and tempted to put on the news to see if something else has happened.

Last fall, we had a funeral for a dear man of God, Fritz Halsall, who had come to the U.S. several years ago having had to leave Nicaragua due to the revolution. Here’s a great story about Fritz. He had a very high government position and was told he was going to be arrested the next day by the revolutionary government. When his wife asked him what they were going to do, he simply replied, “We will go to sleep.” And that’s what he did (quite soundly at that as his wife Olivia tells the story). The next day, he was taken, but the Lord was with him and protected him and his family, allowing them to eventually get to the U.S.

Fritz totally understood Jesus’ words in Matthew 11:28, “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” It is as the well-used children’s prayer says: “Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.” Total confidence in Jesus brings perfect rest.

So before you go to sleep this night perhaps you might join me in praying,  “Lord, my times are in Your hands, and if those hands were stretched out on a cross for me, those hands are the best place for me to be.”           

Now the light has gone away;
Father, listen while I pray,
Asking Thee to watch and keep
And to send me quiet sleep.

Lutheran Service Book 887  Now the Light Has Gone Away