A Cow in the Sky

For the first time in his little life my son woke up crying because of a nightmare. We awoke to his tears and like a good father I ran upstairs to see what my little boy needed. Did he climb out of the climb and fall? Did he get an arm or leg stuck through the railings? Did he drop a toy or binkey that he can’t sleep without?

Nope. He saw a cow. (don’t laugh)

I came in the room, “Daddy’s here, everything’s O.K.” to see his fear filled eyes looking to me for salvation. He reached out to me like someone drowning reaching for the life guard. I scooped him up, and seeing that nothing was physically wrong, asked, “What’s the matter, Lukie?”

“Cow!” he whispered in my ear as he pointed up toward the ceiling. “Cow up in the sky.” I put his head on my shoulder so he wouldn’t see the smile I couldn’t resist. My voice remained deeply concerned but my face couldn’t hide the silent laughter at such a cute fear. I was so happy the scariest thing in his little world is a cow in the sky! He clung to me as I tried to gather more info through simple questions. I learned that the cow was in the sky, that he had a white nose and was black. That’s about all he could tell me with his limited language skills. What seemed cute and silly to me was terrifying to him.

I’m not sure where the evil cow image came from. We haven’t watched any slasher cow movies lately and I’m not sure we have even exposed him to the cow that jumped over the moon. (I was just glad he didn’t say Darth Vader or I’d have been in big trouble!)

I held him for awhile and then put him back to bed but 30 minutes later the scary cow returned as did the tears. So I spent the night in the guest room holding my boy close so he could finally sleep assured that no cows were going to get him as long as he was snuggled up to daddy. Daddy slept fine. He knew there was no danger from cows in the sky, but to my boy the threat was real until he was in his daddy’s arms.

It makes me wonder…

How silly do my fears look to God? What things do I worry about that God has to hide his smile, how silly and cute they are from His perspective? But how loving and patient and caring my Abba Father, my Daddy is, who will come to me at any time, running even, when He hears my cries, and he will hold me. And listen to me, and wrap His loving arms around me and say, “It’s O.K. I’m here.” And if I need it, He’ll even spend the night with me. He has nothing to fear, and when He is close, neither do I.

Have you hugged your God today?

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9 Comments:

  1. Maybe he say a Chick-Fil-A commercial recently ?!?

  2. We don’t have Chick-Fil-A (and he doesn’t watch any TV other than Micky Mouse and a few commercial free shows)… why? what’s in the commercials??

  3. good one! thanks!

  4. Good lesson.

  5. Good Post. Cute, and convicting.

  6. Karl,

    You are such a good Dad! I can just picture the whole thing. Mackenzie had a nightmare a few months ago. Her’s was about an ant! It was pretty funny, however she ended up in bed with us and now tries it most nights. Not the crying part but coming in in the night when we are asleep. She is extremely quiet, so we don’t know she is even there until she is already back to sleep. Don’t want to wake a sleeping baby then. Boy did she figure that one out quickly. Tell Sara “hi” for me and give Luke a big hug from is buddy Mackenzie!

  7. Thank you for sharing that moment with Luke! Your story brought tears to my eyes since at times as a parent we can at times get impatient when our little ones do not want to go to bed because of scary things they see. I have been having that with my 4 year old and this story just reminded me of how important it is to not belittle their feelings and to use every moment to assure them of your love!

    God does that with us!

  8. Oh, I remember those… still having those… Anneliese (3) a couple months ago woke up crying because an alligator was smiling and wanting to play with her. When we asked if he was mean, she said, “No, he just wanted to play.” I guess she doesn’t like alligators :)

  9. Thanks for that. I love seeing how God is like a loving, caring Dad. That picture is beautiful.

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