Sweet Sleep (A Christmas Thought)
[This post originally appeared in audio form on the podcast ‘The Watertower’]
When Christy was pregnant with our first baby, we read a book called, “The Happiest Baby on the block” by an MD who had developed this surefire system for getting your fussy baby to fall asleep. The whole theory was to use certain techniques, sounds and sensations to make the baby feel like she was back in the familiar, warm, cozy environment of the womb. All of the swaddling, swaying, shhh-ing, and on and on were really just a clever ruse. The outside world is big, open, cold and full of crystal clear noises near and far and strange. The five ’S’s were designed to say to the baby’s brain, “Hey buddy… everything is cool. You’re warm, you’re safe, you’re tucked in tight on every side. Everything is as it should be.. it’s quiet and familiar. You’re right where you belong. When our baby was finally born and we deployed these techniques, our little Anna would gradually calm down, let go and ease off into peaceful sleep.
This Christmas, I’ve been trying to mentally put myself in the old story… as if I were walking through the very moment with the young couple and the impossibly helpless baby. What were the sounds in and around the stable that night? Can you imagine the animals around their old trough which was now doubling as a crib breathing like only animals do? Can you hear the crickets? Was Mary singing a lullaby? How cold was it? Curiously, one of the very first things we learn about the baby Jesus in Scripture is that Mary swaddled Him before laying Him down to sleep in the manger. Wow. That’s the first of the 5 S’s! That’s maybe the most critical of the techniques to get a baby calm on down so He’s ready to doze right off. I guess “The Happiest Baby on the Block” wasn’t such a breakthrough after all… Mary wrapped her little boy up tight, which would have told His little brain, “Hey buddy, don’t worry.. you’re back in that comfy world you’re used to. Everything’s cool. Go to sleep…”
And He did. God the Son closed His eyes and slept.
Have you ever stopped for a second and just thought about how weird that is? God sleeping, I mean? Because it is at least a little weird. I’ve been singing, “Away in a manger” and “Silent Night” all my life, but as I mentally put myself in that scene this Christmas, I’m amazed and filled with awe at the idea of Jesus sleeping. Look, the Incarnation is glorious, but it’s also a gigantic mystery. Almighty God becoming one of us - fully human, fully God. There’s so much we can’t understand or explain here. But this moment… when she swaddled Him and rocked and shushed Him till His little eyes closed and He actually gave way to unconsciousness… it’s amazing. Somehow, God let Himself drift off into sleep.
Okay, why is that weird? Well, to be honest, sleep is weird in general. Think about it. Every single day, every person you know just goes unconscious for hours at a time. If you were talking to someone and they just went unconscious in front of you, you would call 911! You would get paramedics on the scene! We would be rushing around, freaking out and checking vitals. And yet, every last person you know does this for multiple hours every single day. You just straight up pass out. The world keeps happening. Night clubs, street food vendors, online video games, that one text thread you’re in that never freaking stops, football and baseball games on the west coast, all of it goes on and on, but you are checked out. You’re not participating. You’re asleep.
Did you know most humans spend 1/3 of their entire life asleep? Isn’t that crazy? People talk about being on that grind lifestyle, being non-stop and all that, but even those folks close their eyes and peace out every day. When you calculate how much an average person sleeps in a year and put that together with the average lifespan of a person in this country, you wind up with a staggering statistic. You ready? The average American spends 36 years and 7 months completely and totally asleep. Ha!
Here are some cool / weird sleep facts: Sleep boosts immunity. People who live in Hawaii sleep more hours a night than everyone else. 15% of the population sleepwalks. So if you and your spouse have 4 kids, someone in your house is scooting around at night without knowing it. Apparently you sleep better during a new moon than during a full moon. The perfect nap, according to NASA, lasts 26 minutes. It’s impossible to sneeze while sleeping. You burn more calories while sleeping than you do when watching TV. There are 84 different recognized sleeping disorders, so if sleep is complicated for you, that makes sense. And the weirdest thing of all about sleep? No one has any idea why we do it. The scientists who decoded our genome, cloned a sheep and put human beings on the moon still have no idea why we do what we all do for 36.6 years of our time alive. Wow.
So yeah… sleep is weird. But if sleep is weird, it’s even more weird that Jesus did it. Why, you ask? Because Jesus was and is Almighty God! Isaiah 40 says, “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the Everlasting God! The Creator of the heavens and the earth. He will not grow tired or weary.” Psalm 121 says, “I lift up my eyes to the mountains, where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of Heaven and Earth. He will not let your foot slip. He who watches over you will not slumber. Indeed, He who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.”
The Gospel of John tells us that Jesus is responsible for making the world. The Carpenter of Nazareth, the baby in the manger was the Creator God Isaiah and the Psalmist spoke of. Jesus is the Maker of Heaven and Earth. In teaching us about the mystery of the Incarnation, the Apostle John, who knew Jesus firsthand put it this way: In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him, nothing was made that has been made… The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. It was Luke who first told us that He slept.
Okay, I want to admit that we are perhaps venturing out onto shaky ground theologically here. Let me just say that clearly as we walk out onto the ice together. Hang with me. Here we go. Jesus has always existed. He was not created. He was not made or formed. He was and is God. That much is clear. He put on flesh when He was born on the ground to a couple of poor teenagers. Mary held Him, nursed Him, wrapped Him up tight and then a thing happened that had never happened since before time began. That is, Almighty God the Son, the Creator of everything, went unconscious. She rocked Him, she shushed Him. He closed His precious little eyes, His breathing slowed and then a wonder… For the first time ever, Jesus checked out.
Sleep is a battery recharge. I mean, scientists may not really know why we do it, but this is at least part of what is going on, right? We have something we need to do, we rest up before doing it. What’s the main thing they tell you before you take a big test in school? “Get a good night’s sleep!” The word Christmas is a compound word that literally means, “The Mission of the Christ.” Jesus came into this world on a rescue mission. He came here to give His life for you and for me. A good night’s sleep at the outset of the mission makes perfect sense. Away in a manger, little guy. You have a big life ahead of you. Rest up.
Sleep is also a necessity. We have to do it. You can survive longer without food than you can without sleep. We may not know the true purpose of sleep, but we know we need it. Sleep is about trust and surrender. When you go to sleep, whether or not you’re thinking about it intentionally, you are saying, “I’m stopping for now. I’m trusting all of this to stay in the lanes while I pass out for a bit. I am for the moment, surrendering my right to control what is happening. I am letting someone else take the wheel.”
I think about the angel Gabriel telling Mary that she is “Highly favored.” Wow. No joke. She was the one who was entrusted with the Hope of all the world, the Desire of Nations. Joseph and Mary would literally keep the baby alive that would save the whole world and they watched as He slept. The infinite God allowed Himself to drift away into unconsciousness, surrendering Himself to the arms of sleep while these backwoods nobodies who were “highly favored” and downright famous in Heaven watched over His precious little life.
And it wasn’t the last time He slept. He was a completely normal human baby. And a normal human boy and then a normal human man. He got tired. He took naps. One time He slept in the back of a boat in the middle of a storm while His buddies thought they were all gonna die. They woke Him up and He (very un-normally) told the storm to hush, which it immediately did. He slept in the homes of friends. He slept under the stars. When He camped, He fell asleep looking at the same moon you do when you camp. He made that moon. He knew you would love it. Have you ever thought about the last night Jesus slept?
It was a Wednesday. He was in Bethany. The village that was just a couple miles outside of Jerusalem. Was it a good night’s sleep? Somehow, I doubt it. You know how it is when your heart is heavy because of some stressful thing you have to do.. some conversation, some confrontation that you know is going to be hard, sleep doesn’t come easy. Did our precious Lord toss and turn on that Wednesday night? On Thursday night, He didn’t even try to sleep. He just prayed all night. At dinner, He told His friends, “I am sorrowful to the point of death.” Yeah, you’re not gonna sleep like that.
On friday morning, on no sleep, He was accused, mocked, tortured and nailed to a cross. Mission Accomplished. Almighty God the Son had let Himself sleep before this moment. Now, at around 3PM, He let Himself die.
On Sunday He rose from the dead. Alive forevermore and taking up residence in the hearts of those who trust Him. He is the Maker of Heaven and Earth. As far as sleep goes, He’s been there, done that. That’s over now. His nail-scarred hand is firmly on the steering wheel and He is a great driver. He is alive. He is with us. He is in control of everything. And because of that, I can rest. I can lie down in peace. I can surrender my cares, my worries, my problems and questions. Because the baby who slept in the manger is the Mighty One who bled for me and rose victorious. The God who lives in my beating heart. The King who reigns forever.
So, next time your head hits the pillow, try this: Remember the baby in the arms of the teenage girl. Remember His trust and surrender. Then remember the Man on the cross and the stone rolled away. Think of the King and let yourself drift off into the surrender of sweet sleep.
