Signposts: Daily Devotions

Written by Renée Miller

Thursday, April 10

I slept, but my heart was awake. Listen! My beloved is knocking.
—Song of Solomon 5:2a

It happens when we're in love. A river of emotion runs through us like a current of electricity. It seems that we can be fully awake even while we are in the midst of sleep. When our conscious self is wrapped in slumber, our unconscious self feels alert to every move, every sound, every touch. Our heart is like a sentinel standing at the edge of the wall, searching the horizon with squinted eyes, awaiting our beloved.

We may sense that we need rest, and yet, at the same time, our heart feels fresh and alive, poised for the moment when our loved one will appear. Even when others around us do not hear or see anything different, we can hear the sound of our loved one's footsteps and glimpse our loved one's approach.

Consider being that awake to life. Suppose we allowed the Holy One who created us in love, and upholds us with the gentlest and most unobtrusive grace, to captivate our heart and soul with deep intensity. Suppose our response to that intensity of love and grace was such that we maintained our charged wakefulness even while we were asleep.

We might wake up at day's birth feeling as though our body still needed sleep, but we would also feel the energy and excited edginess of having been in the presence of the Beloved, and our souls would strain to enter that presence again. It might make us see our life in an entirely new light.

O God, let me draw myself forward into your love until my entire being is filled with the expectation of your embrace.

The Signposts for April are written by Renée Miller and originally appeared on explorefaith.org in May 2004.