The Elf in my Bed

Night before last, I had a dream.

It was one of those crazy, mixed up dreams that we usually have, and frankly I don't remember a thing about it except this, that at some time in the dream,  a little man in a green suit came running onto my house. It startled me so bad I jumped up and fell out of the bed.

I woke with my wife screaming at me, "Bill, are you all right?"  There was pain in my wrist and hip.  I crawled back into bed, went back to sleep, and woke in the morning sore and bruised. 

I thanked God.  It could have been much worse.  My head missed the nightstand and the bookcase by inches.  Fortunately, I have spent a lifetime building upon my body layers of fat as a buffer to withstand such an event--and it worked.  I was ok, but I  hurt in the morning. 

 We have a very tall, queen sized bed, about thirty inches off the ground.  We've had it for sixteen years. Never once did I roll off the bed in my sleep until that night.  It never dawned on me that sleeping could be dangerous.

I am not a seeker after portents, but I do believe that God speaks to us through dreams.  Maybe he was speaking to me through this one, and the circumstances surrounding it.  After all, if we can have an accident in the middle of the night, how safe  are we anywhere?  If we can fall out of bed and hit our head on the floor or break our necks,  shouldn't we wear crash helmets to bed?  Should we sleep

sitting up in chairs? Or should we accept the fact that life is  a risk?

We cannot be free from danger. Maybe we should just accept the fact that calamities happen to all of us. We can avoid some of them, but not all.   Life is risk.  Not to risk is not to live.

The other side of that is this--God is with us. For sixteen years I have been sleeping in that bed, and never once has an elf startled me out of it in my sleep, until then.  When it happened, God watched over my vital parts, so that nothing was broken.  I was protected by the Almighty, who knows me in my sleep.

So why should I worry the rest of my life?  He watched my going to bed and he watches my getting up.  I do not have to fear the sun by day or elves startling me out of bed at night. 

Wherever we are, God is there.