worth waking up for

For the past week I’ve slept with a sleeping mask on. I read recently in some over-informational health magazine that sleeping with a mask enables you to drift into a deeper sleep in a shorter amount of time- creating more complete rest and an increased amount of energy throughout the day. Naturally, a satin, Tiffany’s-blue mask was soon a welcomed addition to my nighttime routine in Arizona. Sadly though, the mask was greeted by quite the condescending chuckle when I got to see my husband this weekend. I believe his exact words were, “what are you, eighty?” (NO- in fact- when we’re actually eighty I’m going to look sixty because of all the great sleep I’ve gotten using my beauty sleep mask!) Regardless of its function or aid in my night’s sleep, I wake up unaware of the morning, the light, and the promise that bursts through the window until I remove the mask from my eyes.  When it’s off, my eyes squint and work hard to adjust, like the first few steps outside the movie theater after seeing a matinée . And even though the mask made for a comfortable and needed night’s sleep, it’s the awakening that I most look forward to.


Easter was yesterday. Never has this holiday seemed to mean more or move me more deeply than this year. Maybe it was because I spent it in Chicago where the hope of spring is more tangible than the morning newspaper. And even though there are days that do not make sense for the end of April (40 degrees and rainy,) I develop a very short-term memory when the sun beats down and the breeze carries summer promise. Or maybe it was because I spent it with my family. We all seem to be making tremendous life-decisions lately and there is this beautiful, unspoken understanding when we gather for a holiday knowing where each member has been and where he/she is going that demands a grace-filled, grateful heart. Or maybe it’s because with each new year I live and breathe on this earth, I mature in my knowledge of what really went on 2000 years ago on a cross, in a tomb, on real soil and in heaven.  Christ awoke from a sleep not many get to brag they awake from. What others thought to be an endless sleep of death was cut short by the power only possible through God on the third day. He woke up, he sat up, he walked around and saw his friends. His wounds were fresh and his heart was rested- for it was finished. His profoundly-perfect purpose was complete on earth, and for the first time I pictured what it would be like to look into the eyes of a resurrected savior. With soggy eyes I think of my own completion, made possible by this one act from a man I get to call my friend.


For too long now I’ve had a mask over my eyes when it comes to the significance of this day. Jesus awoke and his lungs filled with breath on Easter so he could breathe the breath of life into me. Only when I choose to know Him do I awake to the possibility and potential of this life. And only when I awake to the power, grace, and love at my disposal are my crusty, sleep-filled eyes opened to the greater purpose He has for me. Easter awakens years of mundane lives. It makes new of old habits. It puts power behind scary leaps of faith, and it completes our messy, broken, over-slept lives. But the best news is, with a creator like God and a savior like Jesus, Easter can happen      every      single    day.        And that’s something worth waking up for.