For those of you who do not know me, I am one of those people who doesn’t need a lot of sleep. I can easily get by on just five to six hours a night, sometimes (and often times) much less than that. It is both a blessing and a curse. I can get a lot more stuff done, but if I ever want to “sleep in” for whatever reason, I just can’t seem to make that happen. And if that wasn’t bad enough, I am an extremely light sleeper as well. In other words, I hear EVERYTHING, and sometimes the slightest sounds wake me up. Aaarrrggghhh!!!
In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us, “Stay awake. For you do not know on which day the Lord will come.” Now, I know he’s not talking about my sleeping habits. And I don’t think that he is talking about our final moments of life (although we should always live our lives so that we are prepared for that). I think that Jesus is talking about the many times when God comes to us and reveals his love to us in our daily lives.
How often do we encounter Christ during our day? We are so caught up in all of the things that we are doing, that we often miss when Jesus makes himself present to us. For example: in an unexpected call, letter, or email from a friend; from a good deed that was done to us; in the sound of some beautiful music; in the sounds and sights of nature (birds chirping, flowers, rivers, wind, etc.); or in all of those things that touch us deeply.
Here’s the point of the Gospel: we need to be awake to the ways in which God comes to us everyday!
There are so many gifts in our lives, but we’ll miss them if we’re asleep to what life offers, or to what God offers. We need to stay awake so that we will not miss all the ways in which God reveals himself to us everyday!
Caffeine, anyone?
