One week ago, my wife Nathalie and I were blessed with twins. A boy (Zane Ezekiel, 9:07 am, 6 lbs 7 oz, 18.5 in) and a girl (Penelope Jade, 9:13 am, 6 lbs 5 oz, 18 in). We already have a two and a half year old named Asher Ericson. Enough time has elapsed since his infancy that we have forgotten a number of important details regarding infant care. For example, we have forgotten the answer to the question: When do I sleep?

Also, it has taken us the good part of this last week to remember the finer details surrounding the (few) activities of newborns. Essentially, there are four things that occupy the baby’s (and parent’s) time: waking, eating, changing, and sleeping, in that order. One might call this the “ancient fourfold pattern of newborns.”

Babies wake up. You might wonder which comes first, sleeping or waking? But, we have to start somewhere. I like to start with waking, because opening one’s eyes after slumber is like the dawning of a new opportunity. Waking up is a transition from the world of unconsciousness to the world of consciousness. Babies move from physical stillness to a flurry of movement. Waking is essential because it prepares the newborn for the next all too important phase called feeding.

Babies eat. If they are not nourished with the right food in the correct amount, they can easily become ill. The milk comes as necessary sustenance that cannot be replaced by something else. Coca-Cola is out. Prime Rib, not good. Even yogurt or cereal won’t do for toothless grins and immature digestive tracts. Burping comes with the feeding. As the baby’s back is patted, gas is expelled – the air swallowed by lips learning afresh how to suckle the nipple tightly. And, not to be crude, but soon enough, gas is expelled from the other end, too.

Babies have diapers and diapers must be changed. It is a rude fact of life. We eat, we digest, we excrete. Thankfully (for the parent), those infant excretions are less fragrant and less significant the that of a two-year old. Trust me on this one. I estimate that in one short week, we have used approximately 224 diapers (granted, we have twins). We change when they wake up, after they feed, even in the midst of a feeding. With each change comes a fresh start, as well as the opportunity to be dirtied again. After waking, eating, and changing, there is only one thing left to do.

Babies sleep. When a baby has had his fill, his miniature human body wants to doze. This is good since there is not muscle co-ordination to do anything else. Though a freshly fed, burped, and changed infant may lay swaddled, looking around in response to new sights and sounds, sleep inevitably comes. And when it comes, the baby is not the only one who finds pleasure in it. What parents might label as a “power nap” is necessary refreshment for what lies ahead. Sleep prepares the baby for the pattern to begin again, the next opportunity to awaken.

Penelope Jade and Zane Ezekiel

Sleep is the time when infantile bodies grow. Little muscles at rest, stretch, elongate at a rate that is many times faster than that of an adult. Fat cells multiply at a pace that would be horrifying to someone looking to shed a few pounds. The resting baby is a covertly active baby. She is on a mission and that mission is to grow!

Why all this baby-talk? Firstly, it’s pretty much all I can think about at this moment. More importantly, the ancient fourfold pattern of newborns reminds me of another ancient four-fold pattern.

From the earliest of times, and throughout diverse cultural settings and historical periods, one thing has remained virtually unchanged about Christian worship. It is this pattern that starts with Gathering and proceeds to Word and follows through Table and Sending. House churches do it. Roman Catholics do it. Baptists do it. Pentecostals do it.  (Insert your own) do it.

Since the beginning of the Church, people have gathered in one spot, welcoming one another in the name of the Lord, and awakening once again to Christian community and the manifest presence of God.

Worshipers have ingested the Word in forms too varied to mention. We pray it, read it, hear it, discuss it, interpret it, preach it. This step nourishes our souls with encouragement, exhortation, instruction, and revelation.

At the Table we remember our changed-ness. We have been given a fresh start. Though we may soil our lives again and again, the Table remains available, the place where Christ’s body and blood are offered up, over and over in perpetuity. In the elements, we receive grace (or are reminded of grace, depending on your tradition) in preparation for the final step in the fourfold flow.

We have Gathered, Word-ed, Table-d, and now we are sent again, out beyond the community of believers into the world where God is already at work. As metaphors go, sleep is probably not the best picture of being “sent” into the world. Or is it? When viewed as the time during which we take our conscious spiritual practices and apply them unconsciously through habitual kingdom living, sleep is an apt picture of mission.

Our “sleep” should be the most active part of our worship for it is during this time – before we gather once again – that we live out the bulk of our lives, acting in ways that usher in the now and not yet kingdom.

The fourfold pattern remains in every context, though we may add content that is extraneous. When it comes to worship, this liturgical order – even as it may be realized through endless forms – is necessarily and always present.

Now pardon me. It is time for my next power nap.

image © Eric Herron