Our Song in the Night

We've had much heavy rain here in Florida lately.  The ditches in my rural, wetland area have at times been more like a creek gone wild, raging through the subdivision.  Standing on top of the huge double culvert at the end of my drive, listening to the water rushing through less than an inch below the ends of my feet, I was shocked to see an alligator come through the culvert and emerge right under my feet.  Even though the gator (swiftly jerkng his head back toward me) seemed as shocked to see me as I was him, it definitely seemed appropriate to immediately and swiftly vacate the area.

I was not expecting danger under my feet when I stepped onto that culvert.  In the same way, we don't expect tragedy in our lives when we step into a new day.  But sometimes it hits with a vengeance - like the second a TBI slammed into our lives and instantly changed everything forever.  Like that gator, it was unsolicited, unexpected, unwanted.

And sometimes it's not the big things that seem to be ready to eat us alive; rather, it's an accumulation of the little, day-to-day irritations and problems and hurts and struggles that try to take us down.  I was there last week - food poisoning, while at the same time dealing with mangled AC condenser blades and fire starting in an electrical wire (because a bird got caught in the blades after a storm took the protective grate off), preceded by two weeks in Illinois dealing with an extremely difficult tenant situation with nasty repercussions.  I was in pain and feeling beaten down, exhausted, alone, and discouraged, until words of a song by Mark Condon, from a DVD I had turned on, penetrated.... "Peace of God cover me, cover me, cover me.  Peace of God cover me, through the storm, cover me....."

It brought back that dark night 24 years ago when I had awakened from a coma to realize that (1)Steven was severely brain injured and may never come out of a coma and probably would be extremely injured if he did, (2)the accident was possibly my fault, and I could be sued for everything we had, and (3)my injuries were bad enough that I wasn't sure of walking or anything else. 

I remembered how peace came down over me like a blanket in the middle of that bleak night, when God took me to Psalm 62:2, "He alone is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold, I shall not be greatly shaken."  And I remembered....He was there in possibly the worst night of my life. 

But that wasn't all.  Turning the pages of my Bible, I saw note after note written in the margins, all dated, each telling about some troubled time, but each written beside a part of His Word that He had used to bring me peace during that specific time.  To quote a few of the verses God used........

"He hushes the storm to a calm, to a gentle whisper, so that the waves of the sea are still. "
Psalm 107:29

"I remember You upon my bed and meditate on You in the night watches, for You have been my help, and in the shadow of Your wings will I rejoice."  Psalm 63:6-7

"Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved but abides and stands fast forever.  As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people from this time forth and forever."  Psalm 125:1-2

"Fear not, for I am with you; do not look around you in terror and be dismayed, for I am your God.  I will strengthen and harden you to difficulties, yes, I will help you.  Yes, I will hold you up and retain you with my right hand of rightness and justice...For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand.  I am the Lord, Who says to you: Fear not; I will help you."  Isaiah 40:10, 13

"When you pass through the water, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you."  Isaiah 43:2a

"For we walk by faith, not by sight."  II Corinthians 5:7

As many of you already know, my husband, Steven, wrote a "letter to God" after he read the Word each day.  In addition, as he started a new journal, Steven would sometimes write a short statement in the beginning of that journal.  Here is what Steven wrote in the beginning of one of the journals shortly before his TBI....

  "A new blank book.
   Who knows what will happen in the future?
   How the arrangement of joys and sorrows, excitement and the valleys of life will be.
   But every step of my walk of faith will be taken with You by my side, Lord.
   You know the way.
   You know that the pathway is possible.
   You know when I should rest and toil.
   You know me.
   As I write in these pages, I will know You better -
   Your love, faithfulness, loving discipline, and your holiness, justice and mercy for me!
   So I need not fear what these pages will hold. 
   They will be only a record of our walk together - toward home."

Looking through His Word and through the pages of my journals and Steven's, I see so clearly how..... "Your statutes have been my song in the house of my pilgrimage" (Psalm 119:54),  
for.... "They cry to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivers them out of their distresses.  He sends forth His Word and heals them and rescues them from the pit and destruction"  
(Psalm 107:19, 20).

Lord, thank you that You constantly carry us through and give us peace, and that Your Word is there to always be our Song in the Night.