How many of you remember your parents trying to wake you on a school day? You know what I’m talking about. Your parents come to your bedroom door and sweetly say, “It’s time to get up and get ready for school.” To which your foggy brain musters enough energy to grunt in reply.
Your parents, although deep down are somewhat skeptical, feel some level of assurance that your grunt was a fully cognitive acknowledgement that you heard them.
Minutes later, your parents return to your room. What do they find? They find you comatose, breathing slowly and rhythmically, deep in sleep. You are brought out of your sleep by a realization that the once sweet tone of your parents’ voice is no longer sweet. It is now a statement of fact rather than a gracious encouragement. “It’s time to get up and get ready for school.”
Now, some of us know the change in tone means we need to get up. Although you and I both know there are a number of us who the sleep coma still had us in its grip, as our brains fought a losing battle with our muscles, trying to get them to move, to swing our legs over the side of the bed and move our bodies into a standing position, and maintain some level of stability. But our bodies won, and the rhythmic breathing returned. Time seemed to have disappeared as we sensed someone standing in the bedroom doorway. To which we heard a now commanding tone say, “It’s time to get up and get ready for school!”
Our minds sense some level of danger and force our muscles to respond clumsily.
Of course, this is not the only way you may have been woken. What about the time when your parents abdicated their responsibilities and gave the task of waking you to your brother or sister? Oh, now that’s a totally different storyline! Here’s a plausible scenario.
The blankets that form your warm cocoon are abruptly ripped off you as they run out of your room, laughing. The chilly air hits you, and your body goes into complete sensory overload, and your emotions immediately hit rage level as you hear the fading laughter at your plight. Your automatic response is to yell out what you’re going to do to them sometime in the near future. OR You emphatically request your parents’ intervention as you scream their name, “MOM!” “DAD!” Of course, you are unaware that the orders to ‘wake you’ were given by them in the first place.
What about the other, not-so-gracious way of waking you by having your brother or sister jump on top of you, trapping you under the covers?
You have your own stories, either as a child or as a parent.
As we get older and maybe in a move of exasperation, your parents buy you an alarm clock for Christmas. The kind of clock that houses the harshest buzzer that you swear was designed by the same people who created air raid sirens. You know the type.
There was no guarantee that this was even going to work, as we somehow trained our muscles to respond to the alarm by turning it off without ever bringing the rest of our bodies to a significant level of awareness which inevitably brought our parents back to our bedroom door.
Of course, now we have a less intrusive way, with soft music from our devices that slowly brings us out of our sleep comas. The sound slowly increases in volume and in the midst of the music, we hear a distinctive click from the kitchen. You intuitively know that the automatic coffee maker is about to begin spreading the arousing aroma of your favorite coffee. Oh, what bliss!
Several years ago, I was part of a group of men and women who traveled to Haiti to work on a housing project for a mission and its hospital staff. After two days of flights and being plunged into a foreign culture as we weaved along the white-knuckle highway, we finally arrived in the town where we would be working.
We placed our sleeping bags on single mattresses on the floor and opened all the windows, letting in the cooler breeze giving us a gracious reprieve from the daytime tropical heat. We were tired, craving as much sleep as we could get.
The excitement of the day matched the anticipation I felt about our work starting early the next morning. Sleep did not come easily as my ears were aware of the many unfamiliar sounds coming from the town around us. Exhaustion eventually won out and I fell asleep, only to be awakened by roosters crowing. I can remember being so annoyed and thinking, ‘What’s wrong with these birds? Don’t they know it is the middle of the night? What ungodly hour is it? (As if there is actually such a thing as an ‘ungodly hour’).’
Sleep was sporadic as the roosters seemed to be competing to see which one could crow the loudest and the longest. OR, if you are a conspiracy theorist, it was a plot by all the roosters to disturb the sleep of us foreigners. Every night it was the same thing!
What was this instinct that pushed them to crow so early? I know a rooster will crow to acknowledge the presence of light. Even just a glimmer of light is enough to trigger a rooster. Since there were just a handful of street lights in this rural town, the only logical explanation was that they were sensing the coming sunrise.
In the coming days, the annoyance of hearing the roosters eventually waned. Being replaced with anticipation of a day soon to begin.
As long as I can remember, I have heard the story of a bunch of shepherds working the night shift out in the hills and valleys. Knowing just a bit about shepherds, they would tend to live with the sheep for some time. So, it would be reasonable to assume that their day shift shepherds were sleeping nearby. The night shift wouldn’t have a fire going, as it would dull their eyes, making it difficult to see the sheep at night. The only light they would see would come from the stars. Then it happened! No level of morning sibling attacks or the most annoying alarm buzzer would ever come close to what they experienced next. The day and night-shift shepherds would not only have heard the voice but also been blinded by the light as they jumped to their feet. No wonder they were afraid. As their eyes adjusted to the light, they heard this heavenly being calm them and deliver the most profound message. They would have remembered their parents and grandparents talking about a Messiah. Just think about how astounding it would have been to them to hear that the Messiah was born.
Did they actually comprehend the fact that this Messiah baby had been born and now lay in a lowly manger in nearby Bethlehem? Did they even have the time to comprehend the message?
As if the one angel wasn’t enough, they then would have seen and heard a ‘great company of heavenly host’ appear and say ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.’
In modern military terms, a company can be up to two hundred soldiers. How many would a ‘great company’ be in the abundance of heavenly standards?
It wasn’t as if the angel said, “Oh, we will come back in a few minutes when you are more awake.” The shepherds were awake! There was no going back to sleep! The angels left and I am sure the shepherds were astonished at what they had just experienced. They would have looked to each other for confirmation.
“Did you just see…” “Did you just hear…”
The joint experience was confirmed. They had just experienced the wake-up call. Just think of their excitement as they “said to one another, ‘Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the lord has told us about.”
“And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
Suddenly, a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. Luke 2:8-18 NIV
I wonder? In the days that followed, did a rooster regularly made his way to the roof peak of the humble stable and, with his chest expanded, his neck stretched, his head tilted back, and using his loudest crow, announce to the world, “It’s time to get up and get ready for a new day!”