Fourth Sunday of Advent
I have a son who is about to turn one in January! My first born! He is a very happy kid and it’s been such an amazing year of growth for him and for me and my husband as we navigate parenthood.
This Advent I had the idea that I wanted to wake up before my son each day and make time for prayer. It sounded like a really good idea to me! He usually wakes up around 6:30 so it’d have to be a bit of an early morning, but still pretty reasonable. Well, welcome to the fourth Sunday of Advent, do you want to know how my plan has been going?? :/ …not very well.
I didn’t realize this when I made the plan, but I haven’t woken up to an alarm in a year. I’ve just been waking up to Theo. And he doesn’t have a snooze button. I know I used to wake up to an alarm, I’ve done it for years, all through high school and college, during my years in my graduate program, I’ve even specifically done Advents where I wake up a little early for an extra prayer time, but this year I couldn’t seem to get myself to do it. I just kept finding myself hitting the snooze button again and again and again until Theo just woke up and I missed the prayer time morning after morning.
It can feel disheartening, but I’m trying to be patient with myself. My life is very different now than it was then! I was inspired by Saint Joseph in the Gospel story. He is a righteous man as we hear. I imagine him being very virtuous. We hear that the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream with a message, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” Wow. Quite the dream. That’s a lot to process for Joseph. But what I was most inspired by was the last sentence of the Gospel reading: “When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home.” How simple Joseph makes it seem. As soon as he woke up, he believed in the message of the angel and the words of God so entirely wholeheartedly that he did what the angel of the Lord commanded him.
We still have some Advent ahead of us! Let’s be like Joseph, when we awake, to our alarms, without snoozing them, let’s do as the Lord commands us and love our neighbors as ourselves, and ready our hearts for the coming of Christ!