Safety and Trust

Many years ago, a children’s minister told me her philosophy of children sleeping in church. She said, “The way I see it, if a child falls asleep in church, then it means he feels safe enough to sleep, and if he’s safe enough to sleep, then why not let him sleep? He’s resting in the arms of God.”

While you may or may not agree with this minister’s philosophy, it profoundly influenced me. In essence, when I see a child sleeping in my classroom, I let her sleep. I don’t freak out. I don’t get mad. I don’t punish her. I simply let her sleep for a little while and then wake her up. The way I see it, if she can sleep through music class, then she must need the rest, and if she feels safe enough to rest in my presence, then I let her rest.

Safety. Safety is so important. And safety is tied hand and hand with trust.

There are two Bible stories in which Jesus calms a storm. In one story, the disciples have gone ahead of Jesus and gotten themselves into a storm that Jesus lets rage all night before he walks on water to get to his friends and finally calm the storm. In the other story, Jesus has gotten into a boat with his friends and fallen asleep. While he is sleeping, a storm begins to rage and it continues to rage until the disciples awaken Jesus, who promptly calms the storm.

What I find so interesting about this latter story is that Jesus was sleeping. Very rarely in scripture do we hear anything about anyone sleeping, much less Jesus. But people had to sleep. And in this story, Jesus must have been tired because he fell asleep on the boat. What were the disciples doing? Were they fishing? Were they resting, too? Were they shooting the breeze? We don’t know. We just know that Jesus slept.

And if Jesus slept, then he must have felt safe. And if he felt safe, then he must have trusted the disciples to take care of him. Because safety goes hand in hand with trust.

Yes, a storm came. Yes, the disciples ended up waking Jesus because they were scared. Yes, they whom Jesus trusted ultimately put their trust in Him. But do you hear how the trust goes both ways?

The disciples trusted Jesus. And Jesus trusted his disciples. The disciples were his friends. And he has called us his friends, too.

Oh God: You are the embodiment of safety and trust, and you have entrusted us to be a people of the same. Help us to create safe spaces for the people in our lives to come and rest and help us always to have the courage to ask for help from those we trust. Amen.