Bless the interruptions

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At 2:30 this morning, I was asleep. Blissfully asleep. Until my little boy Shepherd came running and crying into my bedroom, anyway. “Ingram’s crying, Mommy! He won’t stop! I can’t sleeeeeep!” I turned up the monitor to verify that my one year old son was indeed hysterical.

How I wish I were the type of mom who popped up smiling in the middle of the night, sweetness and light wrapped in a frilly nightgown, never bothered by the intrusion.
Well, I am not that mommy.
I'm more of a crab in a ratty old tanktop.

Since first becoming pregnant I have suffered from insomnia, so I view sleep as a very precious commodity. Often when I am awakened in the middle of the night, I cannot fall back asleep. So wake me up and you will encounter Grouchy with a capital Grrrrr.

I stomped upstairs to assess the situation, frustrated at Shepherd, frustrated at my sleeping husband, and yes, frustrated even at the baby. Frustrated at insomnia. Frustrated at myself for being frustrated, because Hello, I am a mom, this is what I signed up for. Grrrrr.

A bottle and a diaper change later, I climbed back into bed and I said a quick prayer for sleep to return. Suddenly a prayer I read years ago popped into my mind: “Dear God, please bless my interruptions today.”

And then I realized that God and I needed to have one of those Get Over Yourself conversations. Ack, we have so many of them.

The thing is, I get on a mission. I have certain things that I want to accomplish in a given day. Or night, in which Blissful Uninterrupted Slumber is the number one item on my agenda. My happiness, my peace, is so often reliant on checking things off my to-do list. So when Someone – and usually Someone is less than four feet tall – interrupts me, I might get a wee bit bent out of shape.

What if I prayed that prayer, to view my interruptions as blessings, or as opportunities to bless another?

I wonder what impact that would have on my days?

God is the God of order, yet when he walked among us on this earth, Jesus’s days probably looked a lot more like my own - noisy chaos. He got interrupted all the time. Hands forever reaching out for more, throngs of voices constantly demanding service. (If Jesus had had a cell phone, it would have rung nonstop!) The Bible tells us several times that he had to go far away, all by himself, so he could pray. I so get that! Every time Jesus tried to go someplace, he was interrupted. Did he view the Centurion’s servant as an imposition? Or Jairus’ daughter? Did he snap at the hemorrhaging woman because she slowed him down? When the blind man asked to be healed, did he check to see if it was on his to-do list first?

No, Jesus blessed his interruptions. Grace and mercy flowed down on those who got in his way. Oh, that it would be the same for those who get in my way.

Oh, Lord, give me the humility and the grace to seek your to-do list today, and not my own. Remind me to bless my interruptions -
for your glory.
Amen.