No More Night Shifts. . .

Being a nurse for over thirty years, I have worked my share of night shifts. For the first twenty years or so of my career, I primarily worked during the night. When I finally "moved up" to day shift, it was with the caveat I would be a "day/night rotator", which simply meant I would swing down to night shift as the need arose.

Once I became Assistant Manager of my unit, one would have thought my night shifts would be over for good. It seems, though, I work as many - or even more - night shifts as ever.

In actuality, I like night shift. My natural body clock is more set to working the "graveyard" shift. I like the quieter environment, even though in Labor & Delivery the patients are the same whether delivering at night or in the daylight hours. I seem to be one of those rare people who can sleep well during the day. I even lose weight when I work a significant number of night shifts (especially since the cafeteria took those grilled ham and cheese sandwiches off the menu).

There is a time coming, however, when there will be no more night shifts for anyone:

"And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. . .And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there." Revelation 21:22,23,25

No more night. No more darkness. I don't know about you, but I'm not a fan of total darkness. I like to know where a flashlight is at all times. No more night, no more darkness. "The Lamb is the Light thereof. . . ," what a wonderful thought, He shall be our Light forever.

There is a time coming when what we will experience is so incredibly marvelous, we could not begin to imagine it with the most creative, inventive mind in the world. If we were to sit and think of the most wonderful, beautiful, peaceful existence we could imagine, we would be light-years away from what our Lord has planned for us.

Once when I was a teenager, my Daddy was going to give me money to buy Christmas presents. Instead of just giving me what he had budgeted for me, he had me write on a piece of paper the amount I wanted. He wrote on his paper the amount he had budgeted for me. He would give me the lesser amount, whichever it was. I wrote my amount down and gave him the paper.

My amount was a significantly smaller amount than his. He kept his word and gave me the smaller amount and I learned an important lesson, about him and about the Lord. We are loved far more than we can ever know and our Father's desire to give us "good and perfect gifts" far exceeds our desire to receive them.

So regardless of our experience today, no matter what our circumstances, we can look to the future with great expectation. As my husband loves to say, "There are great days ahead." He is right, eternity is long, and for those of us who have trusted in the Lord Jesus, it will more glorious than we could have ever imagined.

"For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside Thee, what He hath prepared for him that waiteth for Him." Isaiah 64:4