The Lanterns in the Old North Church

On the night of April 18, 1775, a Boston sexton named Robert Newman climbed the narrow stairs of Christ Church — known today as Old North Church — carrying two lanterns beneath his coat. British regulars were moving. The signal had been arranged weeks earlier by Paul Revere: one lantern if the troops marched by land, two if they crossed by sea. Newman hung both lanterns in the steeple window for barely sixty seconds before snuffing them out. That was enough.

Across the Charles River, patriots were watching. They had been watching for days, sleeping in shifts, scanning the dark water and the dim church tower. When those twin flames appeared, riders mounted and the alarm spread from Charlestown to Lexington to Concord. The watchmen were ready because they had refused to stop looking.

What strikes me is how easily they could have given up. The British had threatened action before and pulled back. False alarms had frayed nerves. Some colonists dismissed the warnings entirely, preferring the comfort of assuming tomorrow would look like today. But the watchers kept their eyes on the steeple.

Jesus told His disciples to stay alert because no one knows the hour — not the angels, not even the Son, but only the Father. The fig tree puts out its leaves and you know summer is near. The signs will come. The question is whether we are watching when they do, or whether we have wandered from our post, lulled by the quiet of an ordinary night.