Reaching for my phone, I checked the time, 1:39 a.m. Frustrated and completely exhausted, I would begin the nightly routine of counting sheep.
For weeks, no matter if I tossed and turned before I checked the clock or if I looked immediately after waking, the time always displayed 1:39—desperation set in. Then one night, as I was staring bleary-eyed at that despised time, I wondered, was God doing this? Was He getting my attention, saying, look up chapter 139? Then I remembered a prayer I had been praying during this same period of sleepless nights, “God, please speak to me.” This plea towards God was actually my heart crying out for reassurance that God was near and that He still cared. Can you relate?
I bought a beautiful daily planner and a devotional book called “Fully known, completely loved” during the same month. Isn’t that such an awesome thought? I loved reading and memorizing scripture from this planner so much I decided to order one for a friend. Phoning Kennedy’s Parables in Saskatoon, where I had found mine, a man answered and began helping me. “Fully known and completely loved,” I said, repeating the title to him. He asked, “Is that with Psalm 139 on the cover?”
“Pardon?” I stuttered, suddenly remembering the time on the clock.
“Does it reference Psalm 139 on the front, just to make sure I have the right one?” he asked again?
“I don’t know, I’ve never noticed.”
As I checked, there it was, Psalm 139 printed in gold foil on the front cover. I started to cry.
Hanging up, I turned to the only book in the Bible with 139 chapters, Psalm 139, which says, “Oh Lord, you have searched me and known me and are acquainted with all my ways. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. In your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me when as yet there was none of them. I awake, and I am still with you.”
God did care. He had been waking me up every night just to tell me so. God will do anything to get our attention, even if it takes countless nights of waking us up to say, “I am with you; nothing happens in your life by chance.” He wrote each of our stories’ before any of our days began.
God loves us and wants to speak to us. Has God been trying to get your attention? Why don’t you pull out God’s Word and see what He has to say? Psalm 139 is a great place to start. Oh, and you might be interested to know the nights of seeing 1:39 a.m. have never happened again.
-Charlene Ramstead
Regina Beach, Lumsden, Craven, Southey Layperson
Comment on this at lmtimes.ca/minister
Disclaimer: opinions expressed are those of the writer.
