Reflection for Today ▶️ ⏩ ⏹️
Photo by sleeping.artists, found on Instagram
Icried unto the Lord with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill. Selah. I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the Lord sustained me.
— Psalms 3:4-5
There are times of despair, sadness or just overriding mental exhaustion where all we can do is surrender to sleep. Sleep is nature's great healer, arms to cradle us, a blanket to wrap around ourselves. We are told, "you'll feel better after a good night's sleep" or when struggling to make sense of something we might be advised to "sleep on it". Sleep is our reset button. It recalibrates our body, lowers our emotional arousals of the day, refreshes our minds. Many of the Psalms mention sleep, or lying down to rest.1 The psalmists, poets all, knew the value of sleep, weaving the idea into their poetry as an integral part of our relationship with God.
1 e.g. Psalms 4, 23, 91, 116, 121