A Romantic Notion
Conscious of the fact that I had about eleven hours of sleep in my system, just downed a few Fazoli’s breadsticks, and had only awoke from my Sunday nap less than three hours before the rest of my family would retire to bed, I was prepared to be awake. What I was not expecting was the romantic notion that I would acquire from doing so. There’s something about a house full of people at rest and being the only one with eyes wide open. It causes one to move slower, with much more intention and purpose behind each step in order to go about with life without disturbing the peaceful sleep state of the others. I frequently put off sleep in the night for many reasons: fellowship with friends, boredom, loneliness, and naturally, the occasional procrastinated assignment for school. When was the last time I stayed up just for me?
My King calls out through so many nights and days to romance me, to capture up my heart in passion and fulfill my life with purpose. So many times I resist the call and fail to fully embrace what each period of time might hold. As I refuse to let this moment slip from my life and pass into the unmemorables like so many others before its time, tears fill my eyes from the outflow of my heart filled. Vulnerable I have made myself, for my Lord’s silent night song has wooed me to be so that He might finally come in and do his initial work. “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full,” and so many years later, I have now acknowledged his arrival.
With Him, He has brought neither visions of heaven, nor divine revelations of the heroine I will become in the continuation of the gospel at work in my life. Rather, He has resurfaced memories of faces of people in my life, both current and old. Faces whose mouths spoke truth into my life, brought encouragement to my soul, and many times whose life examples catalyzed my own further search to know God and make Him known. As the tears move from my eyes and down my cheeks, my lips spread upward and wide to catch them. My Lord has swept my soul away this night. He has shown me only a glimpse of his unending love through those that bear his image: a picture still far too vast to ever fully grasp.
I now liken myself to understanding how the children of Narnia must have felt as they began to race through the depths of their savior's world with the eagle crying out for them to come "further up and and further in." I have embraced this night and learned more of my soul's lover. How much more will be revealed if the melody of each day and night is taken in with equal resolution and intent to that of the song of this night?