My daughter Hannah is at that fun age where she is not sleeping through the night, but doesn't really have the words to tell us what is wrong. So I have been waking up in the middle of the night to find this little girl sleeping on top of me. The slightest movement only causes her to stir or fuss even more. Generally that is not so bad by itself, but my son is also started to wake up in the middle of the night and he wants to climb in bed with Mom and Dad too. At 4 years old he doesn't know enough to be quite when he comes into our room at all hours of the night. Which you can imagine doesn't sit well with the 18 month old little girl sleeping on top of me. If by some miracle she manages to remain a sleep during his parade through the room making his requests to join the slumber party in my bed very often him slamming the door to the bathroom does the trick (of course he is only going potty because it is a prerequisite to him sleeping in our bed.) Adding to the list our hound-labradore mix sees everyone in the bed and decides that He too needs to get in on the fun so he either puts his head up and whines or just jumps right up and sleeps again on top of me. Needless to say my wife and I are tired. We are exhausted. We are suffering from sleep deprivation. We are irritable. Our patience seems to be as thin as tracing paper. We just don't function well like this.
Now by this point you are probably wondering "so what? Most people don't function well with sleep deprivation." The point is that I am glad that God does not get sleep deprived. When He rested on the 7th day it was not because He was tired, but because He was finished with His creation. In fact the book of Isaiah in the 40th chapter says that God does not grow tired or weary, and His understanding no one can fathom.
Why is it important that God does not grow tired? It means He never faces the symptoms of sleep deprivation. His judgment is never impaired, in fact God is always the righteous Judge, and always does what is right. He doesn't make silly mistakes. Most importantly though He doesn't lose His patience because He is tired. In fact 2 Peter 3:9 says that God is long suffering toward us, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance. To me there is something comforting to know that God is not going to have an off day and decide "I'm just not going to put up with your foolishness today," and let's face it most of us do many foolish things everyday.
As a parent I long for the day that I get a full night of sleep again. Until then I pray that God will help mold me into His image making me more consistent even when I have not gotten a good nights sleep. I also praise God that He is never sleep deprived.
