Time to Get Up! My beloved spoke and said to me, “Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, come with me. See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land. The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance. Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me.” —Song of Solomon 2:10-13 (NIV) SUZANNE JUBENVILLE | “Time to get up!” my mother’s voice would call, and I would pull the covers over my head. My bed was warm; the house was cold. My mother’s voice, usually so welcome, was now unbearable to hear as she laughed out my name. Soon she would call out that the day would start, with me or without me. The bus would come, ready or not. I could go to school rushing to catch up, or I could throw off those covers, splash some cold water on my face, and join the briskness of a new spring day. “Arise, my love!” The voice of the Beloved calls me toward transformation. But it’s not easy to answer that gentle, insistent call. The dark of winter is a warm bed I don’t want to leave; the covers are so comfortable and familiar. I’m not ready for morning! Please, just a few minutes more. But the voice of the Beloved laughs out my name. “Time to get up!” The day will dawn, ready or not. God’s creation is happening now, and my Beloved invites me to wake up! Arise! And share a gospel relevant to a glorious new day. PRAYER O Beloved, wake me up! Help me throw off familiar language that no longer suits, attitudes that no longer serve, beliefs that no longer build. Quicken my heart to share a living, breathing gospel of love! Invigorate me with the good, cold sting of being woke. Amen.

About the Writer:
SUZANNE JUBENVILLE is a choral director, liturgist, and one-time musicologist.

Source: Quickening from the Stillspeaking Writers’ Group, is an Eastertide devotional of daily readings and prayers to prepare you for your own quickening. Not by making you grind harder to stay alive. Not by asking you to do more, more quickly. Not by requiring you to be quick on the draw, but by giving you a chance to be cut to the quick by grace. The Stillspeaking Writers’ Group is made up of United Church of Christ ministers and writers who collaborate on resources for people in the church, outside the church, and not sure about the church.