A few months ago we went camping at Point Magu in Malibu. Nate’s school does these camping trips twice a year for families to enjoy and fellowship with other school families. None of us are new to camping. Eric and I both use to do it all the time growing up. It was an amazing time, Nate got to meet new friends and Elea had the time of her life following the big kids around. The kids managed to find a rattle snake, a toad, saw tons of dolphins, whales and so much beauty. Our friends let us borrow a 10 man tent, and we lavished in all our space.

We had two blowup mattresses, one for Eric and Nate and the other for me and Elea. The kids were done and ready for bed after the S’mores had been roasted and eaten. We all snuggled to read under the lantern and within seconds of Harry Potter, the kids were dead asleep. Eric left to go hang out with the other parents, and I, as usual, fell asleep with the kids.

I don’t know what time it was when I awoke to the tent being lifted off the ground, covering my face as though it wanted to suffocate me. My initial reaction was to make sure the kids were ok and had not fallen out of their mattresses. But to my surprise, Elea was snuggled up right next to me, out of her sleeping bag, in blissful sleep. To my left, Nate was sound asleep with half his body out of his sleeping bag. My heart on the other hand, felt like the fishermen on the boat with Jonah. I was panicked, the wind was only getting stronger and I wasn’t sure that my half job at putting in the tent stakes was going to suffice. Eric had gone over some of them making sure they were completely in; I remember feeling annoyed at the time. There was no need for him to go over my work, I had done it right the first time (after hammering my finger!). Now, as I laid in bed, my heart going a thousand miles a minute, shivering in fear, I was thankful for his work.

In the midst of the storm (that’s exactly how it felt), my mind drifted back to the fishermen with Jonah. They must have been so panicked as Jonah slept so blissfully, knowing exactly where the storm was coming from, what was causing it and how he could stop it. How thankful were they to see him get up and throw himself in the water, ending their chaos.

I was in and out of prayer, checking on the kids, hoping that Eric was keeping an eye out on the tent and the storm that raged within. Somehow I managed to sleep a couple hours that night but was completely shocked at how the kids had gone undisturbed. Nate got up once. He completely sat up and said “Mama, what’s going on?” and I responded with “it’s ok, Mama is here, go back to sleep”, and to my surprise, he disregarded the tent bending over backwards, the loud wind breaking sounds, everything inside the tent being thrown around, and went back to sleep. Elea’s sleep was never disturbed.

This was my WOW moment. The whole week I kept reflecting on faith and our ability to sleep through the storm because we know that we are being watched over. Whatever may come, I will be just fine. It baffled me because there are so many different white noise makers to help your babies go to sleep, and sometimes as parents we end up tip toeing around at night to make sure that one squeak won’t wake up our kids, and here  we were in a tent that was practically falling over us with high winds that sounded like thunder, yet they slept.

I pray that I am completely inundated by this type of sleep. Come what may, I am staked on the Rock, and though I may not understand the purpose, the what, why, when, how; I am confident that it is all being delicately woven together.