I see the Moon
And the Moon sees me.
God bless the Moon
And God bless me.

On Sunday, we began the season of Advent with its usual greeting: Keep awake! I so love this yearly demand to pay attention. The command rises out of the scriptures and seems to hang like a cartoon ballon over the gathered community. You can notice people smiling, some looking perplexed, that such a directive is so clear, so concise. In the many ways we can wrestle with the meanings and interpretation of these ancient texts, this one cuts right to the chase. Keep awake. Be alert. Pay attention.

It seems such a simple thing on paper. Black Ink rising from the white page telling you just what to do. But we all know the difficulty of keeping awake in the ways the words are intending. This is not ‘don’t fall asleep’ as in literal nocturnal behavior. This is keep awake to the ways God is on the move. This is keep awake to how the Spirit is weaving in and out of the ordinary and the extraordinary. This is a keep awake to the in-breaking of the Sacred in the macro and the micro of our living.

We certainly got a big dose of the macro over the weekend. The Super Moon was in its full glory, shining forth from a midnight blue sky on Saturday, looking close enough to reach out and touch. This magical, mysterious glowing globe hung suspended over our heads and sent its rays into our windows causing a middle of the night wake up call. It was so amazing I got out of bed and just went to stand in the flood of white light it poured onto the carpet. It seemed the right thing to do.

Standing in its full force of brilliance, I was reminded of a story my mom likes to tell. Apparently when I was very small I cried for my father to get the Moon for me. I wonder if this happened on another of Creation’s showy Super Moon experiences. I love to think of my little girl self who loved this beautiful orb so much that she wanted her dad, who could do anything, right?, to pull it from the sky and place it in her tiny outstretched hands. Keeping awake, even in the middle of the night, has its gifts in the memories it serves up.

It is easy to keep awake to the magnificence of Super Moon moments. What isn’t so easy is keeping awake to what gifts might also be hidden in the more mundane…doing dishes, making a way through a to-do list, sitting in a meeting where it appears nothing is getting done, another conversation with a person that you find particularly annoying. These are times when it is easy to allow spirit numbing distractions to take up residence. And yet these are the majority of how we spend our days. Super Moon experiences are few and far between…which is what makes them super.

Keeping awake to the ways in which the Holy shows up in the every day is our on-going work. Noticing the way the sun slants through the window. Paying attention to the precious sound in a loved one’s voice. Savoring the taste of that first sip of coffee or the tart tang of an orange slice. Feeling the wind on your cheek and seeing, really seeing, the rise of the bird who just ate breakfast at your backyard feeder as it takes flight. All these moments of keeping awake connect us in invisible ways with Creation and Creator. And yet none could be thought of as particularly extraordinary.

How are you staying awake to the ordinary, holy moments? May these Advent days find us all keeping watch, paying attention, open to what gifts might be right in front of us. It just might lead to something super.