Sleeping like a baby! Isn’t that what we all wish for! How often have we stood there looking in a crib or a car seat and watched a baby sound asleep and wished that we could have that kind of sleep once again. Totally relaxed. Every limb like jelly. Not a worry or thought disturbing the sleep. Just pure sleep.
I think that was what Jesus was like asleep like a baby in the stern of the boat, so sound asleep that he didn’t even notice that the winds and waves were tossing the boat about and that water was beginning to fill and swamp the boat. Jesus was asleep, in that pure sleep of a baby. How did he do that?
How do you sleep like a baby through the storms and chaos of life? How do you let go and relax into a deep and undisturbed sleep when life is howling and swirling all around you – unless you really are a baby?
Why is it that babies can sleep so deeply? (and I would note that I know that there are some that don’t) But generally babies do sleep deeply. Why is that? First of all, it is because their bodies absolutely need sleep to grow. It is a natural thing for most little ones. Secondly, it is because they feel safe, protected and cared for. They don’t have to worry because there are adults around them to do the worrying and protecting. The third thing is that they only have one thought or feeling in their brain at once. Nothing else is there. If they are hungry, they are hungry. It is the only thing they are focussed on. If they are separated from their parents, the separation is the only thing. And if they are tired, they are tired, and they sleep. No lingering thoughts of hunger or separation to disturb them.
It is as we get older – somewhere about age 6-8 it starts – that our brains develop the ability to have mixed feelings – to hold two or more thoughts or feelings at the same time. That’s when it becomes harder for us to just sleep, that pure sleep.
But here is Jesus, sound asleep like a baby, in the middle of the waves crashing, the wind howling, and the water threatening to swamp the boat. How did he do that? Is it just a Jesus thing? As I read the story, I think that Jesus expected that his disciples would have learned from him how to do it.