"I Love You Too"

My little grandson, Wyatt, is about to turn 3 years old. As a baby, he never had trouble going to sleep at night. Holly, his mom, could just put him in his crib and he would go right to sleep. He had no fears. The night didn't scare him at all. But as he has gotten a little older, he has figured out that there is a big world out there and sometimes there are things that scare him. Things that confuse him. Situations he doesn't understand.

And now, when the dark of night comes and it's time to go to sleep, his fears come to life. To compound his fears, the street light outside his bedroom window casts scary shadows on his wall. Holly put a brighter night light in his room but it didn't help. She tried to rearrange his bedroom so he couldn't see the window when he falls asleep. But he was still afraid. Finally she switched him to another bedroom and it helped somewhat.

But even after all her efforts to ease his fears, when Wyatt goes to sleep at night, he calls out from his room and says "I love you Mommy". And Holly answers back from outside his door, "I love you too, Wyatt." A few minutes later comes a little voice, "I love you Mommy." Followed by Holly's, "I love you too, Wyatt." And this continues on, over and over, for about 20 minutes until he finally drifts off to a peaceful sleep, confident his mommy is close by.

We are not unlike little Wyatt. Sometimes it seems like our world is too big. Circumstances come into our lives that we don't understand. Our problems seem big and we feel small. We feel alone. We become fearful and can't find peace or rest.

Perhaps when we are afraid of the night and our life seems cast with shadows, we could call out to our heavenly Father, "I love you Lord." Then we will hear him say "I love you too, my child." And soon our fears will be replaced with His peace and we will find sweet rest.