Orthodox Icon of "He Who Does Not Sleep"

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Infinite, powerful, omnipotent God the Father in Heaven "Does Not Sleep." Yet God became man fully in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus slept. In becoming a man this man although fully God who "Does Not Sleep" slept. This is a powerful, mind-boggling mystery that shows us the depths to which God goes in order to reach us. He will even become a vulnerable little child. So, if the infinite God "Who Does Not Sleep" is sleeping, He must have power and control over such things. It is interesting that Christians have always viewed death as merely sleep. So in this icon we are getting the message that even before Christ's passion on earth, while He was a little child, God was in charge. He was (and is) showing us about His control over life and death in a tiny little way before He shows us in an awesome way with Christ's resurrection. Just as God has control over the image of life and death, which are sleeping and being awake, He has control over the real life and death. This icon becomes an assurance and comfort of God's will, His love, and His promises to us that He will take care of us in our deaths just as He takes care of a vulnerable sleeping innocent child.
We do not know when death, the final departure, will come for any of us. But, we are given the message over and over again in church through Her songs, images, words and smells that God has taken care of things and that when death does come, we will be OK. Our church is so loving that even after having gone through all that we have gone through in any service She, one last time, reminds us with an image of God's power over sleep and death over the exit door. We can trust that our deaths will merely be a final sleep.

This Icon and its explanation are by the hand of Nicholas Papas. It is from St. Nicholas Serbian Orthodox Church, Steelton, Pennsylvania.

Order #inp-95