No More Counting Sleeps

As of writing this, there are 20 more sleeps till Christmas morning. It starts with little ones. We teach them to count down to any heavily anticipated event by how many more sleeps are left. But do we really out grow that? How many of you are counting down the season in this manner?

Advent is such a fun time of year. This year seems sweeter to me somehow. I am honestly less stressed, less hurried – at least as far as Christmas is concerned. There is simply less to prepare for. No end of the year Christmas parties for work, or school, or soccer. No family gatherings to prep and shop for. Don’t get me wrong, I sincerely miss these gatherings and celebrating this season with these people. But in the absence of these events, I have had more time to focus on the real anticipation of Jesus.

Anticipation is what Advent is all about right? There is nothing like the coming of a baby to bump expectancy to an all time high. In the past week two new babies have been born in my circles. I have found myself loving, cherishing and praying over these babes in deeper ways than I ever have before. There is something about a newborn life that brings hope. I find in these two baby boys the word from the Lord that He isn’t finished with this world just yet.

But the coming of a babe is not all this season calls us to anticipate. We often forget that in this season we are also to look forward to the coming of a king! And boy has this year shown us the anticipation surrounding the coming of a leader. And in no other year have I prayed quite as often: Come, Lord Jesus.

Just this morning I was reading from the book of 1st Thessalonians. The second half of the book speaks a good deal about the anticipation of the second coming of Jesus. In chapter 5 I found a phrase that is very familiar.

Now brothers about times and dates we do not need to write to you for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.

Like a thief in the night, this is a phrase I associate strongly with the second coming of Jesus. Yet, it is equal parts unsettling. I haven’t known my God to look like a thief. And I haven’t known him to work under the cover of darkness. So, I press in. What are you saying here Lord?

While people are saying, “peace and safety”, destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief.

There it is: this day should not surprise you like a thief. I feel like so often I have heard this phrase in scripture used to put the church to sleep. We have told one another, we don’t know the day or the hour. God is coming like a thief in the night. Don’t bother looking for it. Spend your days doing good. It makes me so very sad to see this phrase in its context and to realize what God was trying to say to his people and how we have actually used it. It’s such a far cry! No, we won’t know dates and times, but to say that God comes as a thief in the night is not to say: go to sleep, then God will come!

This is how we all get our kids to sleep in the midst of all the anticipation of Christmas Eve. I wonder how many times on December 24th the phrase is said: “If you don’t go to sleep, Santa won’t come.” Anticipation is a natural stimulant. Whether we are anticipating those test results from the Dr., or the spoils of Santa on Christmas morn or the coming of a new born baby, sleep is the enemy of expectancy.

And yet, we as the church have been lulled to sleep in the waiting. We have bought into the lie that Jesus will come in the night, so we may as well go to sleep. No! In fact, later in the same chapter Paul says

So then, do not let us be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled.

Church, we are not to be asleep waiting for God to come! We are to be alert. We are to be praying. God does indeed share what he is going to do with his people! You are to be alert. You are to be looking.

Why be alert if you aren’t going to find something? Does God send us on a wild goose chase? (Or snipe hunt if you are from the South.) No. God does not send his children on a fool’s errand. He says to be alert because he is going to show us something! He’s going to show us what he is going to do. He’s going to show us himself.

Be alert church! It is not three more sleeps and then the Lord will come. We do not count our lives by sleep! Rather, we count our lives by the moments we see God working. We will only see Him working if we are alert and we are looking. This is an advent passage if I have ever seen one. Our sweet Jesus came at night under a star. Those who got to see him first were those who were awake, alert and looking. I want to be somebody who sees him. I would be so sad to be someone who had missed it because I was sleeping. So this season, I will not be lulled to sleep by the nostalgia or the ads. I will remain alert, watching for the hope of the world coming and entering every home. Emmanuel, God with us.