more than the nightwatchman waits for the morning

"My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning..."

A night watchman waits in the dark. He paces slowly, methodically, through his appointed rounds. The only sound he wants to hear is the click of his shoes hitting the floor as he guards his post through the night. Any other sound is out of the ordinary. Any other sound means something is wrong.

The night is fraught with fear. He waits for the courage morning brings. The night is full of anxiety. He longs for the peace that comes with the sunrise. The night has many friends with names like uncertainty, suspicion and worry. Daybreak chases them away.

But daybreak is still hours away and the night watchmen must watch the hours between sundown and sunup. The rhythm of his rounds helps the watchman count down the hours…minutes…seconds until morning. Until his fear and anxiety are slicked in the warm flood of light that finds its way through the windows.

What if there were no morning for the night watchman? What if the long, dark loneliness of night didn’t end with the redemption of the morning? What if the night continued forever? The watchman asks these questions to himself as he tiptoes around the corners of the dark building, hoping to find each hallway as empty as the one prior. The night watchman probably wonders if night will ever end as the beam from his flashlight is seemingly swallowed up by the oppressive darkness midnight carries with it. With each corner turned and each room examined, the watchman’s longing for morning grows stronger and stronger. If there is no morning, there is only despair.

"The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned."

And then there is dawn. The fearful darkness flees from the light of day. Once dark objects take shape again and the fearful uncertainty of night is replaced by the joy that morning has come and the hope that it will come again tomorrow…the next day…every day.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning….In him was life, and that life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”