The Sign of the Cross
10 Mar 2008 7 Comments
in bedtime, Bible, children, cross, Faith, family, jesus, prayer, sign of the cross, sleep, Uncategorized
I wrote this little blurb for myself about two years ago. (My aforementioned soon to be teenage son was then ten years old). Sorry, it’s outdated, but still true.
As I tucked my ten-year-old son in to bed last night, he did a weird thing. With closed eyes and sleepy limbs he seemed to wave his hands over his stomach and chest before he pulled the covers up. There was something very deliberate about it though and it took me a minute to figure out what he was doing. I stood and stared for a minute before I asked him,
“Do you do that every night?”
“Yes,” he replied. “I always do that. It helps me feel safe.”
It seems that my most profound moments with this child are when he is half asleep. This is the same boy who sat and talked to God at the foot of his bed when he was yet in diapers. And last night, he did something so simple yet so subconsciously that I wondered how often and how long he had been doing it. It is apparently part of his bedtime ritual, performed with the fog of sleep closing in, yet so meaningful to him.
He was crossing himself. Making the sign of the cross over his body to protect him from harm and notify the world that he is the child of God.
When will I be so entrenched in my relationship with Jesus, that even in my sleep I invite him to be with me? When will it be second nature to me to call out to him, rather than a last resort when all my attempts otherwise fail?
When will I ever learn?
So You Say