Keep Watch For Christ
December 7th of 2018 was hard. If there was ever a time I needed Christ with me, this was it.
My dad fell while walking to his car after my children’s chorus Christmas Concert, breaking his hip. At 85 years old, we did not know if he would survive the hip replacement/repair surgery much less fully recover. Add in a dementia diagnosis, and we knew he was in for an uphill climb to any quality of life.
In my despair, I reached out to a friend that night. They suggested I pray compline prayers every night to give my concerns to God and help me sleep.
I cried my way through that first compline service, but I felt God with me through the Scriptures and prayers. The balm of praying soothed me to sleep.
Keep Watch Dear Lord
My Dad survived his hip surgery, but the following weeks were excruciating and exhausting. Between struggling with sundowners syndrome and rehab, each day was a monumental effort for Dad and the rest of us. My Mom, my husband, my brother, and I took turns sitting with Dad to keep him safe, comforted, and encouraged.
I began to refer to that season as “the hospital Christmas” as nothing was normal for us. Somehow our tree got up and presents were wrapped, but it was all a tired blur. The thing I remember most from that time was praying this prayer towards the end of the Compline service each night:
Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or
weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who
sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless
the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the
joyous; and all for your love’s sake. Amen.
Somehow this prayer wrapped it all up for me. Asking God to protect and soothe my Dad while he alternately sundowned and slept. Praying strength for the night nurse we hired to sit with Dad on those long December nights. Asking for God to dry my tears and bring peace to my troubled heart so I could rest enough to care-give again the next day.
Keep watch, Dear Lord, Keep watch over it all.
Watching For Christ
Looking back, I find it serendipitous that I prayed this prayer for a season of Advent. One of the main points of Advent is for us to keep watch for Christ. At my church, St Francis Episcopal, the first Sunday after Thanksgiving always includes one of the Gospel readings asking us to keep our eyes open for Jesus’ coming. Sometimes we read about the bridesmaids waiting for the bridegroom to come in Matthew 25, with some ready for his arrival with lamps full of oil and some not. Other years, we read Matthew 24: 42-44 which says:
“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day on which your Lord will come. But understand this: If the homeowner had known in which watch of the night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. For this reason, you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour you do not expect.”
I have always understood these verses not only to be apocalyptic but a word about Jesus coming into our midst each day. For I believe the advent or coming of Christ happens all across time. Christ has come, Christ is coming, and Christ will come again. Sometimes Jesus comes in the form of the least of these as Matthew 25 tells us, sometimes a child we are caring for, and sometimes Christ even comes when are loving our own family.
Emmanuel, God With Us
December of 2018, Christ came while I was caring for my Dad. I often helped my Dad tidy himself up while I took turns sitting with him in his rehab room. I would comb his hair or wash his face. One day, I turned my attention to his dry and bedsore-ridden feet. As I cleaned and rubbed lotion on Dad’s feet that day, I had the unmistakable sensation that Christ was in the room with us. I remember feeling so present with Dad that day, so awake to our time together and Dad repeatedly telling me how much he loved me.
Tears pricked my eyes as I realized God had chosen that moment to come and dwell right in the room with us, right there with the dry skin and dirty washrags.
But of course that is how Christ comes to us. This is the Son of God who was born in a dirty manger to a peasant girl. This Savior doesn’t just show up in fancy churches decked with decorations of silver and gold. He is also present in hospital rooms with the sick and the sleepless, with the worried and weary and everywhere people NEED a savior.
Christ comes to the lowliest of places. Not only to save us from our sins but to hold our hands in our suffering.
And when we hold the hands of the suffering – chances are we will catch a glimpse of Christ among us.
I can not tell you where Christ will come to me this advent season. Ours is sometimes a surprising savior. But I have learned to try and keep watch for Christ all around me.
