Am I Hearing Things?

This morning -- around 2 a.m. -- I thought I had finally lost my mind. (I have a sneaking suspicion that a certain family member, who has up to this point escaped a diagnosis, may pass along mental instability to me.) A noise had awoken me but in my sleep stupor I couldn't figure out what it was. I thought it was the sound of the door quietly being opened and closed. I scanned the room and, finding nothing, tried to go back to sleep. I heard it again. It was the sound of someone moving around on the carpet. I had to put aside old fears of monsters under the bed when I remembered that I am not a child anymore. I sat up in bed and looked around, this time using the light from my phone to illuminate the darkness. I still found nothing there. So I resigned myself to the possibility of joining my family member in the looney bin sooner rather than later.

Kaden came into our room around 8:30 a.m. saying that he couldn't find Hunter. (Yes, I LOVE to sleep in whenever I get the chance so I was still sleeping when he came in.) I knew the house alarm was still on so I wasn't worried about Hunter actually being missing. I just figured he must've found a really good hiding place from his brother. A few minutes later, I heard the same sound I heard in the wee hours of the morning. I looked over at the door and saw just one arm reaching up to open the door to our room. I caught him!

Apparently, Hunter had become too frightened in his own room after having a nightmare so he crawled into our room and slept at the foot of our bed the rest of the night. Since he was covered in the blanket hanging off the end of our bed, Kaden didn't even see him when he came in. He was attempting to crawl back out of our room, undetected, when I caught him.

He was trying to be considerate. He snuck in so that he wouldn't wake us up. I was touched by this . . . but also a little peeved that he had so easily caused me to think I was going crazy.

As I was reading my Bible later, I was reminded of a verse. The first part of James 4:8 says, "Come close to God, and God will come close to you." The verse before it talks about resisting the devil. Hunter was frightened of the evil in his dream so his first instinct was to seek the protection of his parents. The closer he got to us, the safer he felt. This is a wonderful instinct to learn as a child (provided, of course, the child's parents are properly willing and able to protect their children). In this way, children get a picture of their relationship with God as believers. When I'm afraid, when I'm resisting the devil, my first instinct should be to draw close to God.

I'm so thankful for this reminder . . . although, I'd like to avoid getting this reminder at 2 a.m., thank you.