At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.

Mark 1:12-13

One of my sons had night terrors when he was little.  The first time it happened I thought maybe the monster under the bed was actually real – I’d read too much of Stephen King I guess.  My son made a sound like the blood-curdling, echo-through-the-halls scream of horror movies. Being Supermom, I bound over toys and leapt two steps at a time (I’ve got short legs) to find my beloved child deep asleep and screaming at the top of his lungs. It was damn scary.

I held him tight till he felt calm and safe again. And then I watched over him through the rest of the night.

The next time it happened I was more or less over my fear of being bitten by a monster hiding under his bed…but still…

Come to find out, night terrors are not nightmares.  They are flat out terror. When night terrors take over there isn’t anything you can do about them. They don’t wake you up, so basically you’re just a sleeping, screaming mess until they’re gone.

That’s wilderness.

My own personal night terror is just one thought – If God really loves me, how could he let the scary stuff happen? Where is he when I just can’t do this?

As Mark describes the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, Jesus is baptized and then God says he loves Jesus, and then God sends him right out into the wilderness. That’s harsh!

Maybe one point of this passage is what surrounds the wilderness: in the beginning, a loving God; and in the end, attending angels. Between the beginning and the end is the present and real God who willingly walks right into the wilderness so that we don’t feel alone, even in our night terrors, or day terrors either.

It’s like God is saying, “I’ve got you. I’ll hold you tight until you feel calm and safe again. And then I’ll watch over you through the rest of the night.