Redeeming the night

As darkness fell across the mountainside, thunder shook the forest and heavy raindrops pounded against the sides of our tent. I was a young teen, and it was my first night of a summer camp session. I couldn’t have felt more alone and fearful. On top of the scary weather, I hadn’t made any friends yet and was feeling homesick. I dreaded the coming night.

But little did I know that in just a short while these feelings would lift, taking me to a new place of assurance and comfort rooted in a conviction of God’s presence.

Sometimes (regardless of the weather) “storms” of anxiety or restlessness may keep us up at night, longing for the morning light. Calming sleep apps on our phones may promise relief. But as I learned that night, the truest and most permanent peace comes from an awareness of the all-loving, constant presence of the Divine.

A friend of mine told me that when she began to take her dog for winter midnight walks, she began to appreciate the holiness of night – its beauty and stillness. For her it invited prayer and communion with God, the infinite Mind governing all reality.

We can all redeem the night and experience inspiration, gratitude, and healing at any time. I’ve been inspired by how Christ Jesus used the nighttime to prepare himself for the coming day. The Bible’s book of Mark relates, “And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed” (1:35).

And it was nighttime when an angel appeared to ancient shepherds and announced a glorious event taking place – the coming of the Savior, the birth of Christ Jesus.

At nighttime or anytime, we too can hear the songs of angels – God’s healing truths – through our spiritual sense, our God-given capacity to know and understand our creator, divine Love. As God’s spiritual image and likeness, we are one with Love. As we discern this more clearly, we come to see that no one can truly be separated from Love’s presence.

In fact, the Bible gives this assurance, speaking of God, divine Spirit: “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?... If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day” (Psalms 139:7, 11, 12).

Back to that mountainside. As a young student of Christian Science, I knew that I could turn to God for comfort and healing, so I earnestly asked God for help. Right away, the first line of one of my favorite hymns I had sung in Sunday School came to me: “O gentle presence, peace and joy and power; / O Life divine, that owns each waiting hour.” The words are from a poem written by Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science (“Poems,” p. 4).

My thought became filled with a fresh sense of my divine Father-Mother’s tender, watchful care. No matter where I was, God was there. A lovely peace came over me and I went to sleep.

Furthermore, that was the end of homesickness for me, something I had always struggled with whenever I went on scouting campouts or other overnight trips.

Through watchful prayer and listening for God’s angels, nights can become holy times of rest and inspiration. Fear itself could be considered darkness. But God is ever present, expressing goodness and peace in each of us as His children, or spiritual reflection. There is no legitimate power aside from God, supremely powerful good. God never sends us fear. Our growing understanding of this, as we pray and turn to God, enables us to see that fear has no true power or hold over us. This removes fear and brings true peace, even as light dispels shadows.

Mrs. Eddy once wrote, “... if you fall asleep, actually conscious of the truth of Christian Science, – namely, that man’s harmony is no more to be invaded than the rhythm of the universe, – you cannot awake in fear or suffering of any sort” (“Retrospection and Introspection,” p. 61).

Our nights can be redeemed, filled with the calm assurance of God’s presence and care, bringing inspired rest and refreshment. Each of us can experience something of this line from Edmund Sears’s famous carol: “The world in solemn stillness lay, / To hear the angels sing.”