Bad Night with a Good Lesson

That isn't "bad" as in "good." It's just bad. Luke spent lots of time crying last night. It started with the fact that he didn't sweetly sing himself to sleep like normal. A portent of things to come. At 11 pm it started. The hour of discontent. At first we decided that we didn't need to go in there. He was going to be just fine. A few minutes of crying would quiet him and he would fall back to sleep. Around 11:15 this proved to be a hard course of action and Daddy went in to comfort the little man. In Cindy Lou Who fashion, he got Luke a cup of water and things were quiet...for a few minutes. The screaming began again and seemed more intense. Maybe it was just the late hour. Daddy went in again and I heard from bed rather desperate and frantic calls of, "Mommy? Mommy?" almost as if he were questioning if I still walked the earth. I jumped from bed (yeah, right, at 37 weeks pregnant) and rushed (waddled) to his side. We explained that it was sleepy time. Daddy scooped him up and cuddled with him. Luke was content to be laid in his crib with his blanket. We left thinking we were done for the night. When the crying started for the third time, it became apparent that Luke wanted either company or to just get up. Neither option worked for us. Luke needed to go to sleep and our presence wasn't going to facilitate that goal. We let him wail.
I took the opportunity to write in Luke's journal, a book I am keeping to present to him at some time during his adult life. In the entry last night I compared his wailing and our waiting to how God handles our wailing sometimes. I realized that we as humans wail and scream for that which is not in our best interest, although we cannot see that at the time. God sees it. He knows both our needs and that which will best meet them. We think we know. God is the one who has to sit through our tantrums, longing to bring us comfort. I think I sometimes fail to allow God to comfort me because I'm so stuck in my funk. So, I couldn't judge my son last night, refusing to be comforted and longing for something that wasn't good for him. And I was able to give thanks to God for lessons learned at a very late hour.
But I'm really hoping I learned all God had for me last night and we don't have to repeat the lesson tonight. :-)