18th January 2021

Inspired by that skit involving the four Yorkshiremen, where they try to outdo each other in terms of describing the hardships and deprivations of their boyhoods, that was the word I was wanting to cry out when I came to that part in the story of Jacob, where he was sleeping out in the open, and chose a rock to be his pillow. Luxury!

My wife recently replaced our bed. At first, I thought she had bought a new marble bench top, and covered it with sheets. She said that it was labelled as ‘firm’, but according to what scale? The one that scales the hardness of diamonds and masonry drill bits? This…. this…. industrial machine with springs and covered with cloth is something else. It seems to defy the laws of physics. “For every action,” said Newton, “there is an equal and opposite reaction”. But this bed seems to push back with a greater force than that with which it’s pushed.

Lucky for me I have another pillow upon which to rest my head. Those old puritans called it “the pillow of God’s sovereignty”, meaning the comfort of knowing that the God of holiness and love governs this world with a wise providence, such that not even a sparrow can fall to the ground apart from a good Father’s will. And what a pillow it’s proved to be – stuffed with the down of God’s promises, and filled with the luxury of grace, and guaranteed to give to any soul a good night’s sleep.

DM 18^th January 2021