It’s almost 4 AM on this Good Friday morning. It’s not unusual these days for me to be awake at this time of day. I have this tendency to reverse my days and nights, if given the chance, and this quarantine has proven quite the opportunity. It’s not that I want to do this, be a night owl. In fact, I have always thought of myself as a morning person. I remember a trip I took with my parents* when I was a child and we left at Zero Dark Thirty, or so it seemed. It was dark out and we were off to some rodeo parade. We stopped at a truck stop for breakfast while it was still dark and I can almost taste the pancakes I ordered, they were so delicious. And I was happy being up to see the sunrise. It’s a good memory and one that I’ve shared before to show that I was a morning person.
And then something switched…
I think it happened in my 40’s or 50’s. I had a surgical procedure that required an 8-week medical leave. I remember, once the major pain had gone and I was beginning to feel myself again, that I had time to read and boy did I read. I think it was then that I read through the Harry Potter series. And once I started I wouldn’t put them down, staying up until 5 or 6 AM, in time to see the sun rise. I’d go to bed and wake up around 2 or 3 PM. And I would start all over again, puttering around the house and reading until the next morning. It took the last week of my leave for me to get back on schedule in order to go back to work.
And now there’s a quarantine that has put everyone on leave, it seems. I’ve been awake at this time for several days, though most of those days I was in bed by now. I’d be in bed, awake at 4 AM, reading, playing games on my tablet. Today, though, I got up relatively early (10ish) and started working on my computer, updating sites and accounts. I wanted to be productive after a few days of binge-watching different series on TV.
I took a break from the computer to cook, actually cook, food. I made enchiladas, Mexican rice and re-fried beans, a lovely Mexican meal, reminiscent of my mom. The beans were the only things that came out of a can and they were whole pinto beans, so I had to mash and re-fry them. So that makes them homemade…yes, homemade. Shut up.
After eating and cleaning up, I went back to work updating apps and reading articles and now it’s 4 AM. And it’s Good Friday. I’m suddenly thinking of the disciples so long ago, waiting outside the gates, wondering what was happening inside… They must have been awake around this time. Did they even sleep that night after what happened in the garden?
Justin Taylor, from The Gospel Coalition, posted a brief video and article on that Friday, where “Historian Paul Maier and New Testament scholar Andreas Köstenberger walk us through this world-changing day.”
Selah.
* From about the age of 2 until the age of 13, I was raised by a couple for whom my dad worked as a farm laborer. I had developed severe asthma and allergies at that early age and the wife, who also suffered from asthma, offered to care for me, essentially raising me in their home until her death. Her husband was a Deputy Sheriff for the county and he was part of the Posse that rode in parades and rodeos all over west Texas and New Mexico. We would travel to those events and I have fond memories of those days.
All Things Elda 