Wake up for Jesus

You're going swimming at a pool tomorrow. You've been waiting all summer for this, and you're so excited you can't sleep! But even if you think you'll never fall asleep, after a while, your thoughts turn into dreams. Then you wake up, and it's morning!

It's hard to sleep when you're excited, but it's a good idea. If you don't, you'll be too tired to have fun. But there's one time we should try to stay "awake" and ready: When Jesus comes back.

In this week's Gospel (Luke 12:35-40), Jesus talks about it.

"Be like servants waiting for their master to come home," Jesus said. "Blessed are the servants who are awake and waiting when their master comes home, even if it's very late. He'll have them sit down, and he'll wait on them! So be ready, because you don't know when I'll be coming back."

In the Gospel story, Jesus said that when He comes back at the end of the world someday, we'll have a lot to think about, too -- mostly, whether we've been good people who tried to stay close to God. Like servants waiting for their master to come home, we don't know when Jesus will come back, but we always need to be ready.

If you get some sleep, you'll be ready to play at the pool. To get ready for Jesus, we don't need to stay up all night -- but we do need to pray and be good to each other. If Jesus comes back to find we're good and ready for Him, He'll take care of us and we can live with Him forever, just like the master took care of his servants.

We don't know when the world will end and Jesus will come back, but when He does, it will be like jumping into a pool: Jesus will make a big splash in the world!

PRAYER FOR THE WEEK: Jesus, help me to sleep when I need to, but "stay awake" by being close to you! Amen.

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