April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
GOOD NEWS FOR KIDS
Sleepovers and staying awake
Jesus, help me enjoy sleepovers - and also remember that waiting for you isn't like a sleepover! Amen.
"Watch out!" Jesus said. "You don't know when I'm coming back. I'm like a man who leaves on a trip, puts his servants in charge and tells them to watch for his return. Watch, because you don't know if the master of this house will come at midnightor sunrise. If I come back suddenly, I'd better not find you sleeping. Watch!"
Have you ever been to a sleepover? If you stay overnight at a friend's house or friends stay at yours, there probably isn't much sleeping going on. You eat, watch TV, look at Facebook, laugh and joke - anything but sleeping! You're too excited.
Jesus talks about a kind of sleepover in this week's Gospel (Mark 13:33-37): A man leaves housesitters in charge and goes on a trip, telling them to take care of everything and be ready for him when he comes back. He's worried they'll fall asleep and not pay attention to his homecoming.
Of course, the man in the story is Jesus, who wants to make sure everyone remembers He's coming back someday and we don't know when, so we should always be ready. We do that by trying our best to be good people and staying close to God.
Sleepovers are exciting - and distracting. If you make any plans for what's going to happen, you usually just goof around all evening and stay up late instead. Then again, if you don't sleep, you're really tired the next day.
Jesus didn't want His coming back to be like a sleepover. He wanted people to be alert, stay ready. If you expect to see Jesus at any moment, you'll try to be good; if you treat His time away like you're at a sleepover, you'll be giggling, joking and paying no attention when He walks in the door![[In-content Ad]]
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