It is my task to wake up my first born everyday for school. Obviously, my wife lacks the patience to be gentle with her and she threw fits waking up in the past and thus the wonderful task fell on me… (I still love you, wife! =))

At 7:30 every weekday morning, I kneel next to my daughter’s bed and stroke her face and whisper, “baby, time to get up.” She rubs her eyes, stretches herself, grabs a hold of my neck, and I carry her to the bathroom to get ready for school.

A 12 year-old girl dies. Her father is devastated, understandably. Jesus sits next to her, holds her hands and in the gentlest of voices says, “Honey, time to wake up.” She opens her eyes, awakes from her death and is given to her daddy …(Luke 8:54 – In quotations are Tim Keller’s translation of what Jesus said to the little girl)

Death, our ultimate fear, is only as sleeping to Jesus. The source of all our worries and anxieties, what we toil all our lives to secure – to stay as far away from death as possible, but still inevitable – Jesus solves simply by saying “honey, time to get up…”

When our days are done, with all our worries and unfinished tasks and unfulfilled dreams, we too will fall asleep.

Then, He will kneel next to us, hold our hand and whisper, “Honey, time to get up.”

We will rub our eyes, stretch ourselves tall, grab a hold of his neck and He will carry us into eternity.

PH