A Prayer in the Darkness

Father, it is the middle of the night again, and the darkness feels like it has gotten inside me. The house is silent, my mind is loud, and every fear I keep at bay during the day comes circling back now that the lights are out. I feel utterly alone in the dark.

I confess I have stopped expecting morning. The night has lasted so long that I have started to forget that dawn is a real thing that happens, even to me.

So I whisper into the dark toward You, the One who does not need light to find me. You are here in this room, in this hour, in this exact ache.

Be a steady presence in the small hours. Quiet the racing thoughts enough for rest. And if sleep will not come, let me simply rest in the knowledge that I am not facing the dark by myself.

Your word says that even the darkness is not dark to You, that the night shines like the day, for darkness and light are the same to You. Where I see only black, You see clearly, and You see me.

I give You this long night and my fear of it. Keep watch over me while I cannot keep watch over myself. Weeping may stay for the night, but joy comes in the morning, and Your morning is on its way. Amen.