“Mom, I need help! Come help me!”
The words were faint, almost as if they were floating just out of my grasp, part of a dream fading away as my eyes opened to the dark room. “Come help me” the words came again like a whisper, but I could not quite place if they were real or not. I shook off the sleep from my limbs and climbed out of bed. Now fully awake, I ran down the hall straight to my twins’ room. After all, they are usually the ones that would call for me at night.
I threw open the door and said urgently: “What’s wrong? What do you need?” It took a minute for my eyes to adjust to the dark and see two bodies laid out on their beds completely asleep, unfazed by my dramatic entrance. “Maybe it was just a dream,” I thought as I closed their door quietly and started back to bed. But as I turned, I heard again the faint words from down the hall: “I need help! Come help me!” It was my older son’s voice. He has always been such a good sleeper that he almost never calls for me at night. If he needs something he just gets it. But not this time.
I opened his door to find his room completely dark. He was so tired the night before that he had gone to bed and forgotten to turn on his nightlight. Apparently, he woke up to find himself in the pitch black. I rushed to turn on the lamp and then walked over and gave him a quick hug. “Mom, I tried to get up and turn on the light myself, but it felt like there was a big wall keeping me back. I just couldn’t do it alone… so I called for you.”
I went back to bed and rolled his words over in my head: “I just couldn’t do it alone… so I called for you.” I wondered – when is the last time I said to God “I just can’t do this alone… so I am calling for you.” ⠀
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Or even more importantly, when has God said to me “I just can’t do this alone… so I am calling for you.”
The call of God can come in extraordinary ways – big visions and amid life altering circumstances. But it can also, more often in fact, come through the most ordinary of moments – like the late night call of a child to his mother asking to shed some light in the darkness.
How are you being called today? How will you answer?
