Security Blanket

Every night, I go to bed late...I'm talkin' 12:30am to 1am on a normal basis. I do this for no particular reason whatsoever. I get up around 7:30am-8am"ish" every morning and yet I can't kick the late nights.

When I finally do go to bed each night, Susan is already fast asleep, as are both kids. I stumble up the steps, try to avoid Rosco, who is usually guarding the door and find my way to my bed. (It makes me appreciate what a blind person goes through on a normal basis.)
Upon dropping my "my lousy hide" (a term I remember my dad use to say) onto the mattress, I give an already slumbering Susan a kiss and tell her that I love her and roll over to my side.

After verbalizing my undying love for my partner in crime, I enter the next stage of getting prepared for my six (or so) hours of shut-eye:
All of my life I have had to do a few things to be successful in my rest. I must:
a) sleep on my stomach (this may be a t.m.i. moment for you the reader or maybe you do the same)-if I sleep on back I have nightmares. I have no idea what the sleepology is of this occurrence, but I avoid it at all costs.
b) have my feet covered by at least a sheet.-I hate having cold feet (no worries I didn't even think of leaving Susan at the altar...get it cold feet :-))
c) have my shoulders covered by at least a sheet.-Just like the feet, I hate cold shoulders (I hope I've spoken to you (the reader) everytime you've approached me...get it cold-shoulder :-))
d) usually I can't sleep if there is light, so I turn my eyes away from whatever window may produce any light.

I tell you these things, not because I figured you were wondering about my sleep patterns, but because it made me think about something the other day.
From time to time when I head up to hit the hay, I lay there and I hear noises. We live in an old house, near some train tracks, so there's always some noise coming from somewhere in the house. Anyway, some nights I listen and I hear things (I'm aware I've lost my 'man' credibility with my fear of noises, but let me continue). Every night I know that the chances of our house getting broken into are very low, yet I still hear these noises.
My thoughts and reaction always go from, "I better check that out." to "It's nothing C-noss go to sleep." When I do go to sleep though, I do something that made me want to write this blog entry. Even though I know things are safe, even though I know my family is not threatened, just to give me a little more protection I add an extra layer of blankets to put over me...an extra layer of protection if you will.
Hebrews 11:1 says,
"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."

Faith and hope go together. What we have hope in is what we put our faith in. If we have hope in Christ and believe that everything that God said he was going to do he did, we should have faith that God's ultimate plan will come to fruition.
God has given us a type of "security blanket" in his son Jesus Christ. As 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."
Jesus' substitutionary atonement of dieing on the cross for our sins, allows us as Christians to have faith that whatever comes our way, whether it's something as small as a noise in the house or seeing the stock market take a nose-dive or even being mocked and ridiculed for our faith, we have a security blanket...a hope...a faith, in knowing that what was done at the cross and the days to follow in the resurrection is our hope for our eternal future.

We all have fears, whether it's the dark, or spiders, crowds or tight spaces, noise or silence, we can trust that our God is bigger than all that:

"for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control."

~2 Timothy 1:7