Do you stay up late on Christmas Eve, eager to see what gifts will be under the tree? I’ve been thinking about if I feel the same level of excitement and readiness for Jesus’ return. This week we’re talking about how we need to always be prepared for His return, and how this anticipation will change our lives. It’s truly the most life-changing return of all time.
We have a lot of good stuff to talk about here, so let’s get after it!
What’s New!
Monday Story:
- It’s Christmas, and we should be excited! But when you think about it, we can always stay ready for celebrating Jesus.
Tuesday Key Verse:
- Psalm 119:148 – I stay awake through the night, thinking about your promise.
Wednesday Prayer:
- Thank you for this night, God, when so many people across the world think about Jesus. I want to always be looking for Jesus, always staying ready for when He comes again. In His name, amen.
Thursday Question:
- When was the last time you remember having a hard time falling asleep because you were so excited for the next day?
Friday Fun Fact:
- Q: What is the average time kids wake up on Christmas morning?
- A: 6:45 am
Show Notes:
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Transcription:
Julie Lyles Carr:
My brothers and I could never sleep on this particular special night. I’m Julie Lyles Carr and you’re listening to God on the Go, part of the Purposely Podcast network where we help you make the minutes matter. And I am telling you, if you are listening to this episode on the day that it’s going to release, which is Christmas Eve, this is the night. This is the night that we could never sleep when we were kids. We were so ready for Christmas the next day.
We’ve been talking about this season of advent and how advent means to be ready to look for something coming, that there’s an adventure in our lives that God has for us. And so, this idea of being ready to get ready, to get ready for tomorrow, particularly when tomorrow is Christmas, I mean, how exciting is that? My brothers and I would be so excited, so nervous, we would be so curious to know what was going to be under the Christmas tree, what kind of gifts we were going to get. We’d be listening for any little sound. I mean we just did not sleep. It felt like we stayed up all night. I know eventually we did fall asleep, but it felt like we stayed up until the wee hours of the morning. And we had this interesting door, the hall where my brother’s bedrooms and my bedroom was in the childhood home I grew up in, there was a door that closed off that hallway. And so that door would be closed to the living room, and then our family room that we had and we would get in our doorways and talk to each other until we heard somebody heading for the door to open that door to the hallway, and we would just scurry back into our bedrooms like little mice, and try to act like we were asleep. That’s how excited we were.
Now, I had to think about are there other times I’ve been as excited as that to stay up so late into the night just so being ready for tomorrow? And as I thought about that, and I thought about the meaning of Advent to really be looking for when Jesus is coming back, wow, isn’t that something that when we think about getting ready, we should be so excited? Are we as excited about Jesus coming back as we are for Christmas Eve? What would it look like if we stayed excited? Always thinking about Jesus can come back at any time. Jesus can come back and we can talk with him. We can walk with him. We can experience all these amazing things. How would it change how I live, how you live, the decisions we make, the things that we say, what we feel is important? If we really kept in our minds that Jesus is coming back. I thought this was really interesting. I was looking up some different information about being awake on Christmas Eve, and there were a couple of studies that said that the average time that kids wake up on Christmas morning is 6:45 in the morning and some kids even earlier than that. And I thought, wow, that makes so much sense because I can remember never wanting to wake up in the morning when I was a kid wanting to get more sleep. I’m just not much of an early bird like that. I’m still not much of an early bird like that, even though I worked in morning radio for a long time and had to get up way earlier even than that. But 6:45 in the morning, think about on Christmas morning you just pop awake. You cannot wait to get out there and see what gifts might be under the tree. All the fun you’re going to have with the family. And some of these studies said that 74% of adults of grownups say that they stay up a whole lot later on Christmas Eve too. So, it’s not just the kids staying up late, it’s the parents too because we’re all so excited.
Are we as excited thinking about Jesus? Thinking about Jesus coming back to us? Thinking about the fact that he has gone to prepare a home for us and he’s going to come back one day. When Jesus got ready to go back to heaven, he told his followers that he didn’t want them to be sad. He wanted them to be excited. He said, trust in God and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so would I have told you that I’m going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, there’s that word ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.
Yes, there’s getting ready for tomorrow when it’s Christmas and we’re so excited and there’s also getting ready for tomorrow, the tomorrow when Jesus comes back for us. How does that change how you think about things? Are you looking for him to do that? Are you ready for him to come back? It’s so exciting to think that there is a day coming when Advent will be over. Have you thought about that? This idea of advent, this getting ready for Jesus to come back, it will be complete because Jesus will come back for us. That’s a pretty amazing thing to get excited about. It’s a pretty amazing thing to be reminded about. No matter when you’re listening to this, whether it’s on Christmas Eve or you’re finding this episode sometime in the spring or the summer, every night in a sense when we go to sleep can be that sense of a Christmas Eve. That there will be a day and that’s the day Jesus comes back and how incredible that will be. I love this verse from Psalm 119 verse 148. It says,
I stay awake through the night thinking about your promise.
If you’re having trouble going to sleep tonight because you’re so excited about what’s going to happen tomorrow, or if you’re having trouble going to sleep tonight because you’re worried about something, I just want to remind you, and I want to remind myself, when we’re awake through the night thinking on God’s promises, on the tomorrow that God has for us, is the very best medicine of all.
Hey, I would love it if you would text the word go, that’s GO to the number 89419 … 89419. And when you do that, then I’ll be able to text you discussion questions, memory verses, trivia facts, all kinds of cool things that we talk about here on God on the Go, so you can keep the conversation going. I’ll see you next time on God, on the Go.
