Thoughts during Advent Sunrise Prayer

Happy Christmas Eve, everyone!

This morning, we enjoyed our last Advent Sunrise Prayer of the season and had a very full and sweet group that came to join in the delight. What a glorious way to start the Christmas holiday! You can view the beautiful photos and videos captured this morning here (thanks Matt Shaw and Lauren Paden!) and hear reflections from the time from attendee Pauline McCollough here.

photo by Lauren Paden

During last week’s Advent Sunrise Prayer, my friend Andrew Paden wrote and shared some insightful thoughts on the blessing of waiting. Enjoy his reflections below!

(Note: he reflects on important scenes from the end of the book by C.S. Lewis, “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.” If you have not yet read that book or are unaware of the ending, this is your spoiler alert.)

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It’s another beautiful morning in the prayer room. It’s so nice to be in the prayer room! Today is a sunrise Advent gathering. My friend Noel is leading us through scripture, prayer, and meditating on the Lord.

As I sit in prayer, I am reminded of a scene from the Chronicles of Narnia. In the book “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,” by C.S. Lewis, the good creatures of Narnia are battling the White Witch and her evil minions. There is a moment when the eldest of the Pevensie children, Peter, is fighting with the witch. Things were looking grim. Aslan (the great Lion) shows up at the last moment, kills the witch, and turns the tide of the battle.

“Peter’s army — which had their backs to her looked terribly few. And there were statues dotted all over the battlefield, so apparently the Witch had been using her wand. But she did not seem to be using it now. She was fighting with her stone knife. It was Peter she was fighting — both of them going at it so hard that Lucy could hardly make out what was happening; she only saw the stone knife and Peter’s sword flashing so quickly that they looked like three knives and three swords. That pair were in the centre. On each side the line stretched out. Horrible things were happening wherever she looked. “Off my back, children,” shouted Aslan. And they both tumbled off. Then with a roar that shook all Narnia from the western lamp-post to the shores of the eastern sea the great beast flung himself upon the White Witch. Lucy saw her face lifted towards him for one second with an expression of terror and amazement. Then Lion and Witch had rolled over together but with the Witch underneath; and at the same moment all war-like creatures whom Aslan had led from the Witch’s house rushed madly on the enemy lines, dwarfs with their battle-axes, dogs with teeth, the Giant with his club (and his feet also crushed dozens of the foe), unicorns with their horns, centaurs with swords and hoofs. And Peter’s tired army cheered, and the newcomers roared, and the enemy squealed and gibbered till the wood re-echoed with the din of that onset.”

The Chronicles of Narnia series has many parallels to the Bible, our relationship with Christ, and the saving work He did on the cross. As I compared Aslan’s seemingly late arrival on the scene…I had a question about God’s timing.

Why does God wait to move or to let things happen at a certain time?

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” (Romans 5:6)

Thinking back to the Chronicles of Narnia, the creatures waited so long under the witch’s spell of an eternal winter. Aslan could have returned sooner and saved the day. He had the power to destroy the wicked witch. But he waited for a particular moment—when Peter and his army had almost lost, when defeat was close at hand.

Why do you wait for your particular moment, Lord? Not, “Why don’t you rescue sooner?" but “Why do you wait for these particular moments to show your full power?”

Maybe there is something learned or gained in the long, cold winter? Maybe it takes us a while to thaw out and become fully alive? Maybe You believe in the process? In the slow waiting for the sun to rise.

I picture two of the heroes of the story, the beaver couple, sitting together in their cozy little beaver-dam house, long before Aslan’s return. Patiently and hopefully waiting for Aslan to return, winter to end, spring to come again. They waited expectantly. Ready to see the signs that Aslan’s return and the end of winter were near.

How do I wait patiently and rejoice in the middle of winter? How do I embrace the cold and appreciate the cozy little beaver’s dam God has given me in the middle of the freeze? And without slowly becoming lazy and unaware? What does that look like in my life right now?

I don’t know that I have answers to all those questions. But I do believe the King is returning. I believe that He has the power to rush in and save the day. And if I currently find myself in a winter of life, I want to learn how to embrace this season. And trust that He will show up and come to the rescue in His perfect timing.

Lord, I don’t want to miss the lessons that come from winter.

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. (Romans 5:3,4, ESV)

But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31)

Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him. (Isaiah 30:18)