God is with us through the Night

Press the play button to watch the video above or press 'more' to read the transcript of the daily devotion below. Please read Acts 20:7-16 (use your own Bible or use the link above to access the in-App Bible).

Many of us know what long nights feel like. Not only the nights when we fall asleep exhausted, but the nights when sleep won’t come at all, when pain, worry, or waiting stretches ahead. Patients often tell me how night-time can drag, each minute weighed

down with uncertainty. Families and friends keep loving vigil beside a hospital bed, offering comfort when words dry up, praying quietly, holding a hand, refusing to leave. And through those same hours, nurses and doctors tend and reassure, with a dedication that turns darkness into a place of care. These moments remind us that God often works through the gentle persistence of others, through watchfulness, compassion, and the simple gift of being present when our endurance is most tested.

It is into this very human experience of Eutychus in Acts 20 that we read of a church gathered late into the night, an upper room full of lamplight, Paul speaking at length, and a young man perched on a windowsill gradually nodding off. He falls and yet when Paul embraces him, life is restored. For me, this passage reminds us that God meets us not only when we are alert and composed, but in our tiredness in those moments and places where life feels heavy or fragile.

The early Church in that upper room shows us what Christian community is meant to be, a fellowship of encouragement, where we pick one another up, where the wounds and anxieties of life are held in love and hope. Paul continued speaking ‘until dawn,’ as if to say that faith is often sustained by staying with one another through the night hours of the soul. This story also whispers something sacramental. They gathered on ‘the first day of the week’ to break bread, a reminder that at the heart of our faith is not our own strength but Christ’s abiding presence.

As we journey through Lent, perhaps this passage invites us to trust that when we fall, or when the night feels long, Christ’s embrace is already reaching toward us, and the community of faith is ready to help us rise again. God keeps watch with us until the dawn.

Let us pray: Lord Jesus Christ, stay with us through the long nights of the soul, lift us when we fall, and keep watch with us until the dawn. Amen