keep watch

Opening Prayer: Teach us, O Lord, to keep watch for your coming.  For you are likely to come in a way that we least suspect.  Amen.

Scripture: Luke 2:8-15

Journal: What does it look like in your life to “keep watch?”  How might God show up in ways that are very different from what you expect?  How will you keep watch for that?

Reflection: My guess is that one of the main reasons the angels came to the lowly shepherds was because they were the ones “keeping watch.” (Luke 2:8-15) It was an art they were well-practiced in; such an integral part of their everyday lives.

Keeping watch is so important in the spiritual life.  Yet, it is not as easy as it seems.  Oftentimes, our expectations of what we will see, or how, where, or when we will see it, get in the way.  We are busy looking for one thing, when God is doing another.  We are expecting him to make a grand entrance, when he is trying to sneak in the back door.  He is often more quiet and hidden and subtle than we give him credit for.

I mean, who in their right mind would expect God to come into his world as a baby?  Yet that’s exactly what he did.  So if we are trying to “keep watch” over these next days or weeks or months, we might do well to look for God to come in the ways we least expect.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Cultivate in us, O God, a heart of watchfulness.  Help us to never get so involved in the noise and the chaos and the busyness around us that we are unable to recognize you when you come to us.  Come, Lord Jesus!