If I Should Die Before I Wake

Many of you remember this childhood prayer: “Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.”



Yes, that prayer is riddled with very bad theology. No one whose sins have been washed in the blood of the Lamb through confession and repentance needs to implore the Lord to take his or her soul at death. That’s a ‘fait accompli.’ God has already promised to do so.



But I thought of that prayer the other day when my mind brought me back once again to the events of January 19th of this year.



I think of that night pretty often when she had her hemorrhagic stroke.



Nancy called out from the hotel shower, “Ow! Ow!” I jumped out of bed to see what was wrong. When she came into the bedroom, she told me she suddenly had the worst headache she’d ever had in her life.



Then she looked at me and said, “I love you.”



When we got to the emergency department less than 30 minutes later, and I sat with her in one of the exam rooms waiting for the doctor, I asked her why she told me she loves me.



I will never, never forget her answer. She said, “I thought I was going to die, and I wanted you to know that I love you.”



“Now I lay me down to sleep . . . .”



Most reading this know what it is like to lose someone you love to death. When the death is slow – over the course of days or weeks – we have time to say goodbye.



But when death is sudden and unexpected, when it catches you totally off-guard, one of the regrets we experience is that we didn’t say what we would have said if we’d had the chance.



“If I should die before I wake . . . .”



That’s why I urge you, don’t go to bed each evening without telling your spouse, “I love you.” It might be your last chance to do so.



Don’t let too many days go by without telling your parents – or your children – you love them. Life can change during the night.



Having said, or having been told, “I love you” will help ease some of the passing.