SINGING IN BED

My longtime friend, now blind, lives in a nursing home and recently suffered a stroke which affects her sleep. A relative helped her try to speak on the phone to me last Sunday. It was recorded on my Caller I.D., but I couldn’t understand her. If I write her, someone must read the letter to her. I just happily found out that I can communicate by e-mail with the relative who will convey my message. Thank You, Lord, for creating cyberspace so that precious Emily and I can connect our spirits and bond in the love of Jesus! You may read over my shoulder….

Hello Emily,

I think of you so often and pray for you when I pray for many of my friends our age who live in care facilities. God is with each one of you "all day long" as King David said in the Psalms so many times. And dozens of times David reminded us that during the night time God is especially close to us. Perhaps night time is difficult for you? "His song will be with me in the night" and we are to meditate on Him "with my heart and my spirit." "Let them sing for joy on their beds."

Well, Emily, that probably doesn't mean out loud, does it? We might disturb others. But you and I know how to "sing" in our spirits, mentally, without a sound, and the Lord hears our praises to Him perfectly clear and loud. The apostle Paul calls it “making melody in your heart to the Lord.”

I know how much you love the old hymns and have stored them in your memory. It doesn’t matter anymore whether you can see a hymnbook, does it? Sing them mentally all night long especially when you wake up and can't go back to sleep. Because you have temporarily lost your eyesight (only until you see God face to face), you told me once over the phone that it doesn’t matter whether it is daytime or nighttime anymore—it is always dark for you. But you have God's Light shining brightly in your Spirit. Jesus said He was the Light of the world—no one can put that Light out or Him turn off. There is a verse somewhere in the Bible that says, "darkness and light are alike unto Thee." You know that's true.

Here's something we did when we were young, maybe you did too. When we gathered in Church or someone’s home for what we called “Singspiration,” we took turns suggesting favorite hymns. When we finished singing the last phrase of one hymn stanza, we let the theme or a word remind us of another hymn, and then we started to sing that one. And so on and on, caboosing one hymn after another. Try that for endless praises to our God and it will be a "sweet, sweet sound in His ear," as a modern chorus reminds us.

I will write you again, Emily. "May the Lord bless you and keep you and be gracious unto you, may He lift up His countenance upon you, cause His face to shine upon you (that means smile at you, Emily—you can't SEE His smile, but you can FEEL the warm glow of it, can't you?)—and may He give you His peace."

I love you and Jesus loves you more than you will ever know, until your faith becomes SIGHT and you SEE Him in the intense brightness of His glory for Eternity.

Your friend, Leona

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