By Rachel Joy Welcher

If you’ve ever faced a tearful bedtime battle, you’re not alone. Nighttime can stir up big emotions in little ones. But Rachel Joy Welcher, author of Charlie Can’t Sleep!, invites parents and caregivers to see bedtime struggles in a new light. When little ones resist the dark or fear being alone, these moments can become gentle opportunities to teach our children about God’s constant presence.

Psalm 121 and God’s Constant Care for His Children

Something strange happens right before bedtime in our house. Suddenly, my happy three-year-old is devastated that Daddy turned out the lamp when she wanted to do it herself. She is traumatized by my request that she pick out pajamas (something she loved doing yesterday). She can’t fathom why we would say no to reading a seventh book. Her favorite toothbrush is no longer her favorite.

The reason for the angst may change, but it always circles the same drain: sleep. She doesn’t want to go to sleep. Maybe you have a child like mine in your house?

We do what we can to get her excited about going to bed. She has her favorite blanket, her teddy bear named “Ed” and she even gets to listen to stories on her Yoto player as she falls asleep (lately it’s been The Boxcar Children on repeat.) But there is something so vulnerable about sleep, and even our children sense it. They are no longer able to play and plan, they must give in. Surrender. And of course, there is the issue of the dark.

Ultimately, no matter how many soft pillows and stuffed animals surround them, our children need something more. It turns out that what they need most is theology. Specifically, a theology of God; who He is and will always be.

Psalm 121 tells us something extraordinary about God: he never sleeps. The reason he can watch over your life (v. 7) and watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore (v. 8) is because he doesn’t need to close his eyes and rest for a minute. He doesn’t need anyone else to cover the nightshift. He who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. (v. 3-4)

Psalm 121 gives us the truth we need to reassure our children - and ourselves - that surrendering to sleep at night is safe, because God will be up all night. When we wake up and it is still dark outside, we can pray and he will hear us, even if everyone else in our house is asleep. There is never a time when God is not watching over us, and not a single moment when we are alone.

I began pondering this truth from an early age, when I myself would wake up at night and feel that shiver of stillness. The idea that I could pray at any time transformed my relationship with Jesus. I went from nodding along at church to having a real relationship with the Creator of the universe.

Clinging to this truth about God led me to eventually writing my first children’s book, Charlie Can’t Sleep. I wanted what had comforted me on so many nights to comfort other children, especially my own. My toddler now tells me that she prays in the middle of the night. I wish I could hear what she talks to God about, but those prayers are just for Him. And there is something so sacred about that.

About the Author

Rachel Joy Welcher

Rachel Joy Welcher

Rachel Joy Welcher (MLit, University of St. Andrews) is the author of Talking Back to Purity Culture and three collections of poetry. She works as a book editor and lives in South Dakota with her husband, Pastor Evan, and their two children, Richard and Hildegaard.

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