I Thought We Had More Time
Jamie Krug is a Mom who writes and blogs about raising two children with special needs.
One day, while driving her kids to school, her 4-year-old son – without warning – calmly announces from his car seat: “Mommy, I sad my legs don’t work so good.”
Almost immediately, Jamie becomes nearly paralyzed with both fear and grief … and she remembers saying to herself: “I thought we would have more time.”
From Day One, she and her husband began discussing just how and when they would talk with their son about his cerebral palsy: let him know there would challenges and pain. Some ridicule from other kids. Possibly a few limitations in life.
But they wanted to wait until he was old enough to understand.
Never in a million years did she think that his understanding would come on a typical Tuesday morning drive to school.
“I thought we’d have more time.”
We all do, don’t we?
More time to spend with the kids before they grow up and don’t want or need us …
More time to read or vacation or pick-up that hobby we once loved …
More time to tell someone we love them or we’re sorry …
I think that’s why Advent is such a gift to us.
As a kid, these four weeks were just about counting-down the days to Christmas … one more purple candle closer to Santa.
But I see it differently now. I think Advent is the Church’s loving reminder to take Jesus at His word and “Stay awake!”
Because while, yes, it is a reminder that God could come at any moment and call us Home to Him, I think that there is a deeper call here:
Stay awake to the ways in which God is breaking into our lives every day, right now:
As Paul so beautifully writes: look for the ways in which we can put on the armor of light. In a world so very dark sometimes – especially now in the bleakness of December – look for the Light. Better yet: BE THE LIGHT!
Be the Light of listening hope for those who are lost in their own sorrow and misery. Be the Light of patience when stuck in long lines at the department store or supermarket. Be the Light of gentleness and mercy when there doesn’t seem much of it on the highways or on social media.
Advent really is all about becoming Light – Christ’s Light for the world around us.
Little by little, day-by-day: allowing His Kingdom to break forth into our homes, workplaces and schools.
Nothing big, either:
A little extra time to pray; a little moment of daily quiet or Scripture; putting down the phone for five minutes and really engaging in conversation with someone:
All ways to stay awake.
Because let’s be honest: Noah knew the flood was coming and was ready. One of the men in the field and one woman at the mill was also in-tune to what was coming.
How?
They woke up from a slumber of complacency and self-centeredness. In a word: they woke-up to God breaking forth into their world. They made sure they were ready to see Him coming.
Which He does – ALL THE TIME – if we are but awake to even notice.
So the friend who calls out of the blue to see how you are since the passing of your Mom? God-breaking-in.
The kindness of a stranger who pays for your Wawa coffee? God again.
For Jamie, God broke-in to that terrifying moment happening in her car when her 5-year-old daughter turned to her little brother and said:
“That’s okay, Owen … I’ll give you my sneakers with the lights on them … they make you run really fast … and ask Daddy – he’ll always help you run fast.”
The older sister giving her little brother hope in a moment when he was about to lose it.
The little girl giving words that her Mom couldn’t find.
THAT’S God breaking-in.
That’s what this season of Advent is all about.
Take the time in the weeks before Christmas to really look for the ways God wants to come to us now.
Let Light – which the Advent wreath symbolizes – break-into your world.
Better yet, with Christ: BE THAT LIGHT for others, so that when the time comes, we will never be caught off-guard, saying to ourselves: “I thought we’d have more time.”