Wake Up, Sleepyhead!

Our munchkins are true Sleepyheads most mornings.

Hallie, pictured above, typically pulls the covers over her head at the first sign of light.

Race, on the other hand, grabs a tighter hold on his Snuggly and opts for the comfort and security thumb sucking affords.

Their responses to my cheery, "Good morning, Sweet Pea, it’s time to wake up" when they were staying with us last week started me wondering. What do you and I do when it’s time to wake up?

Oh, sure, by the time we are adults most of us have learned how disastrous it can be not to crawl out of bed when we’re supposed to. We may hit the snooze button on our alarm a time or two but most of us have learned to get up when we need to if for no other reason than self preservation. I mean - how many of us LIKE to oversleep and find ourselves running like hamsters on a wheel just to get where we need to be on time. Some of us may do it. But most of us get pretty irritated with ourselves when we do. Physically waking up, however, isn’t really what I’m wondering about. What I’m wondering about is waking up SPIRITUALLY.

When our heavenly Father turns on the "light" and gently whispers, "Time to wake up, Sweet Pea. It’s a new day and I have some new truths for you to embrace." What do we do? Do we pull the covers over our heads?

Do we? I mean – figuratively? How many times does God try to move us along in our understanding or application of a spiritual concept and rather than accepting the challenge, we pull the covers over our head; content to stay where we are – all cozy and warm – for just awhile longer.

Waking up to something new spiritually sometimes means we have to do some extra work. We may have to do a little research into some scriptures. We may have to pull away from the activity of life and just be quiet before the Lord. Waking up to a fresh spiritual work in our lives often requires intense times of meditation and simply listening - listening INTENTLY - to what God wants to say to us. Pulling the covers over our head and staying where we are is definitely easier. But – OH – the blessings we will miss if we aren’t willing to wake up when the Master calls!

I wonder how many times our heavenly Father has awakened us deep within our spirit to a new work He wants to do in our lives . . . or a new place He wants to take us – and we have grabbed our Snuggly into a tighter hold and latched on to whatever comfort and security we are prone to cling to. Most of us have outgrown thumb-sucking. But have we? Really? Don’t most of us have a "comfort zone" we are reluctant to leave?

I think God is saying to many of us :

Arise, my love, my beautiful one,
and come away,
for behold, the winter is past;
the rain is over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth,
the time of singing has come,
and the voice of the turtledove
is heard in our land.
The fig tree ripens its figs,
and the vines are in blossom;
and they give forth fragrance.
Arise, my love, my beautiful one,
and come away.

Will you arise today to discover new delights in Him? Or will you cover your head and stay where you are?

Will you follow Him in new spiritual adventure and smell the fragrance of the vines that are in blossom? Or will you plop your thumb in your mouth and stay in your comfort zone?


Wake up, Sleepyhead!