March 17 – Rest

Things don’t ever stop in this world, so we all have to take turns keeping them going.

Someone has to work the night shift at the 24-hour Wawa, so our friend John took that job. It wasn’t his first choice, but it’s steady work. I hope he gets paid extra for working all night.

Someone has to keep us safe while most of us sleep, so we have police officers on the night patrol and dispatchers round the clock. If you call them, they will be there for you.

We need them out there. We also need people to work all night at the hospital because that’s when emergencies seem to happen. And patients need their vital signs checked and their meds given even during the night.

New York is called the city that never sleeps, but even in small towns there is always someone awake.

New parents grow acquainted with the wee hours because newborn babies don’t know and don’t care if it’s day or night.

I, personally, have had minimal experience with the night shift. Once in high school I filled in on the night shift for a friend at the A&P. A few times as a chaplain in the hospital. On a couple of occasions when my children fell on their heads, I had to stay watchful through the night, waking them up every hour to make sure that they could be wakened.

I had three labors that lasted all through the night.

And when I was a college freshman I had a superstitious conviction that in order to do well in this one class, I needed to pull an all-nighter before each exam. It seems like I could almost count the number of night shifts I’ve done on my two hands. I know for others it’s more a way of life.

Somebody has to do it, right? We abandon ourselves to sleep, entrusting ourselves to their care. Because the world keeps spinning on its axis, it keeps moving. The world never stops.

But, you know, it does that all on its own, without our help. We’re not necessary to move the world. God set the world in motion, filled it with life of all kinds. Called it good. Then reminded us to rest. And while we have decided to organize ourselves so that there is someone on watch, someone taking care round the clock, it would do us all good to remember that whatever we do or don’t do, the world goes on.

While we rest in the night, the other side of the world is full of light and noise and movement that has nothing to do with us. Eventually, the light returns to us, like clockwork. 

No one of us is Atlas. We can rest, assured that the world will keep turning.

Photo: Sunset, Huber Heights, Ohio