:Naiahdot

If you look at the timestamp for this entry, you will see that I am typing it at just about 2:30 in the morning. One would think that I ought to be in bed at such an hour, and I am. I have been for hours. Here I am, though, in the middle of the night reeling and rejoicing in my blessed and unexpected random bit of insomnia that just saved our lives and home…

I came up to bed fairly early tonight, as my kind and sweet husband offered to put the kids down without me so that I could get a little extra project time. I set to and wrote up this week’s book review on A Prayer of Faith, had a great long chat on the phone with Michelle as we edited it together, took care of a few other sundries, had some sweet quiet time with my husband, and before I knew it it was midnight. Mind you, I’m quite the retire-to-thy-bed-early kind of girl, as I get up hours before my children in the morning so that I can have time for study, prayer, pondering, writing, [editing middle of the night blog entries like this, rife with typos,] and other tasks that require more headspace than can be found from kid-up to kid-down.

Regardless of my usual habits, there I was still wide awake. Midnight passed. One o’clock passed. One thirty. Finally my darling husband gave up waiting for my batteries to run out and quit hacking on his project. We turned out the lights, snuggled in, and while he was shortly asleep, I found myself remaining oddly alert. After 20 or 30 minutes, it became clear to me that my mind was moving no closer to sleep. I grabbed my next review book to dig in, thinking that reading would bring on the sandman. No luck. I finished the entire first section of the book, and just as I began the second section, I caught a whiff of something acrid on the air. I sniffed a couple of times thinking to clear it from my nose, but there it was again–and stronger.

I closed my book and slid out of bed to have a good bloodhound-style sniff around the room and see if I coudln’t figure out what it was. It was something burning, no doubt, but what? I sniffed over the vent in the floor that’s open to the downstairs, nothing. Sniffing along I moved over to the bathroom and ZINGO there it was. Only, as I passed into the bathroom, it faded away.

I came back out of the bathroom and caught the trail again, moving along the plane where it had been strongest following it to the other end of the room. Then, I saw it. A cardboard box, the one that our new blender had come in, had somehow been pushed up right against the electric heater in our bedroom wall. The shiny white background was just beginning to turn brown where it had been in contact with it. The flaps of the box reached right over to the bookshelf where the old sci-fi paperbacks are kept.

Holding the box, sniffing it, seeing it, feeling the sheer heat in it, an absolute wave of gratitude cascaded right over and through me. Usually, by two-something in the morning, I am deeply, soundly asleep, and my adorable husband, well, usually about all of thirty seconds after hitting his pillow is deeply asleep as well. We never would have known. As it is, though, I was mysteriously kept awake and alert until I needed to be. Upon discovering the box, I turned on the lights, and roused my ever-so-very unconscious husband to have a prayer with me. He offered it, in sweet, sincere, and humble thanks.

As an added blessing (as if this were not enough!), just as he ended the prayer, I was struck through with the knowledge that some months ago, the battery in our smoke detector had died and I did not recall having seen my husband change it. I mentioned it to him, and he immediately got up, pulled the old battery from the detector, grabbed a pack of 9-volts from his desk, and put a new one in. We had both forgotten. Now, though, as we remembered, we were doubly thankful for the Lord’s protecting hand this night.

Perhaps I should have saved this story for another Ensign article or for a book, but really, my joy, gratitude, humility, and rejoicing is such that I simply must share it now. Besides, I think I just read a very similar story in one of the chruch magazines–only it was a chimney pipe. So, they don’t need this one. Maybe one of you does.

Some people may laugh that the church is so full of such stories and experiences, but truly, they are a testimony to the true and living gospel! What joy, to know, amidst all the dangers of life, that we are protected–that because of a forgotten dead battery and a mislaid cardboard box, I would find myself still awake at three o’clock in the morning. Not surprisingly, though, as I find this written, I am suddenly quite sleepy.

I think I’ll sleep in until 7. Here’s a quick prayer that He will sustain me tomorrow on half a night of sleep just as He has preserved us tonight…

*Gratitude!*

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