While He Was Sleeping

Last night while my husband drifted off to sleep, my arm draped across him, I felt the rise and fall of his breathing as sleep took over. I felt the warmth of him and realized how blessed I am every night to lie next to the love of my life. Is that something I take for granted? 

I thought about my widowed mother, who would give anything to feel my dad's warmth next to her one more time. Sharing a bed for 49 years is a long time. I thought about my 3 uncles and aunt who are all widowed and sleep alone every night. How each one would love to kiss their spouse good-night one more time. 

Then my mind turned to my new friend, Ashley, and the many other wives of servicemen who sleep alone while their husbands are away serving their country, or bunk with a child just to have someone next to them. I thought about how much they must miss their husbands every night as they lay their heads on their pillows. I imagined how that military wife must long for the day when her husband comes home and she can fall asleep securely in his arms. Or how she may want to lie there and watch him sleep not wanting to take her eyes off him. What sacrifices these families make.

Then I though about the woman who longs for the right man to share her love and life with, but he hasn't come along yet. Or the distraught married woman who doesn’t know where her husband is because he's late coming home again. 

It's so easy to take the day to day things for granted. It's often easier to see what we don't have instead of the things we do. The simplest things can be the sweetest. If you have a good husband, thank God for him as you lie next to him tonight.