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Even though my plans were to fish a little, that really wasn’t my main reason for going. But since I needed supper, I was happy to be able to catch a couple of fryers that turned out to be delicious.
I enjoy being alone. And this is sort of odd for someone growing up as I did. As a child, I was terrified of the dark. I also constantly had nightmares that someone was trying to get me; so when my father would try to wake me up, I assumed that he was the culprit. I scratched and clawed in order to escape. The proof of the fight was evident each morning on both of us. It got so bad that my parents eventually took me to a child psychologist. (I can hear some of you now. “So that’s why he has a locked and loaded personality.”) The psychologist simply attributed it to a normal childhood stage. My dad wasn’t convinced. He in turn, began to monitor what I was watching on T.V. It turned out that Lassie was the real perpetrator. Well, it really wasn’t Lassie, but it was all of his antagonists. I really don’t remember the rest of the story, but I know that for some reason, I began to befriend the night. It happened as I began to understand the attributes of God as a teenager. During those teenage years, I began to be drawn to the peaceful, starlight, skies. I can remember simply going outside by myself, sitting in a chair, and staring at the wonders of the night. To this day I love sitting in silence, alone, in the dark of the night.
If I may, I would like to speak to the children who may read this, or offer some help for those parents who have children who are struggling with this same problem. Let me say that God is with you, even in the night. Here’s what David said to God in Psalm 139
7 I can never escape from your Spirit!
I can never get away from your presence!
8 If I go up to heaven, you are there;
if I go down to the grave, you are there.
9 If I ride the wings of the morning,
if I dwell by the farthest oceans,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
and your strength will support me.
11 I could ask the darkness to hide me
and the light around me to become night
12 but even in darkness I cannot hide from you.
To you the night shines as bright as day.
Darkness and light are the same to you.
13 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,
as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
16 You saw me before I was born.
Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out
before a single day had passed.
17 How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.
They cannot be numbered!
You never have to be afraid. God has been with you from the time you were in your mother’s womb and He is with you today. And He will be with you tonight.
Gary Miller
gary@outdoortruths.org
