My Sparrow

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?"  Matthew 6:25-27

"Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered." Matthew 10: 29-30

Two sparrows for a penny.  Two sparrows, so insignificant, unless of course you have a special relationship to sparrows.  Out here they are a dime a dozen (which if you do the math is more valuable than the were when the Gospel of Matthew was written).  No one notices if they fly into the windshield or the cat gets one (as long as the cat doesn't bring it into the house).  Yet G-d notices.   And he feeds them.  All of them.  All the hundreds and thousands of sparrows that fly around, he feeds them all and cares for them and sees them when they fall.  How much more does he care for us?

When Scriven penned the old hymn "What a friend we have in Jesus", he wrote:
"What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.

Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged; take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness; take it to the Lord in prayer."

(and two more verses that can be found here)

For Scriven, nothing was too small to go to Jesus with, so here is my sparrow.
About 2 weeks ago I was switched to a new medication in hopes of better controlling my seizures and my migraines.  The first week I slept.  And I slept and I slept.
And then I stopped sleeping.  Completely.   I just don't sleep any more.  It's not for lack of trying, it's not for lack of trying to do stuff all day to exhaust me enough to sleep at night.  I just don't sleep.
Every once in awhile I can get an hour or two in, but it's shallow sleep, not deep, restful sleep.  As I got up this morning after another very restless night (I was up every hour at least), I had a strong urge to pray about it and to ask other people to pray.  So I am.
If you are the praying sort, please pray that I sleep.  Pray that I sleep at night and can be awake during the day, pray that my sleep is restful and life giving.
There are many more "important" things I could ask you to pray for.  The brother of a friend who was badly burned from the waist down.  A friend who is coming to term with twins who are both in the breech position.  People who are having the first Christmases without loved ones, friends who have just had very painful operations, my dog who got in a cat fight, my friend's baby who isn't gaining weight, discernment for my future...but that's not what I'm asking for prayer for.  I'm asking for prayer for my sparrow.  I'm asking prayer that the sleepless nights end and that I can enter this Christmas season well rested and ready to go.

So please, pray for my sparrow.