Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with his assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch.
“Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back – whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’”
Mark 13:33-37
I watched Lalo last night put the Legos in their basket. She was so proud and talking more than she was even last week, telling me she had been the one to take them out. And I was attentive because I felt the time slipping away. I wanted to remember every minute. The way her bangs touched the top of her forehead. Her laugh that said she was proud of being big in so many ways. Her fingernails and those pudgy fingers that I know will grow more slender with time and I want them to stay just so.
I watched because I didn’t want to miss a thing. It was one of those moments where I willed myself to remember because I knew it would be different next week, next month.
And here we are told to watch for Jesus to return. To be ready to capture it, so as not miss it. But what if we are attentive between now and then? Not just watching for that end moment? But watching what he is doing now in us? In the world?
I want to see, to not miss. I plan to pay attention and not fall asleep on the job of living my life. This one shot I get. I will start today, during this Advent, this period of intentional waiting, to see where he is at work. So that I am caught watching for him throughout my minutes, not just at the end.