God in my sleeping, God in my waking, God in my watching, God in my hoping. 

[For the full prayer, click Prayers of the Hebrides above]

It doesn’t happen often, waking up in the middle of the night. A combination of seasonal allergy sniffles, ambulance sirens, and an upcoming project had me awake at 3am a few days back. After half an hour of trying to get back to sleep, I gave in and got up.  At 5:30am, I finally dozed off, adding another hour to my night’s sleep.

I wish I could say that I did something productive with that 2+ hours of being awake, but I didn’t. I watched the end of a movie I’d already seen, then flipped back and forth between ER reruns and Guy Fieri’s Triple D. I didn’t commit to sleep and I didn’t commit to waking: I just passed the time, waiting for my yesterday to end and my new day to begin.

When I wake up in the morning, I say the same prayer: God, grant me to greet the coming day in peace. In all things, help me to rely upon thy holy will. In every hour of the day, reveal thy will to me….Why didn’t I do the same when waking in the middle of the night? If I’m honest, I’d say that I didn’t have God penciled in. Between sleeping and my scheduled waking time, God showed up, as always. I just didn’t open the door.

[Sunrise in Plymouth,  Photo by Donna Eby]