Pathway To Peace...Day Twenty...Rest

Day Twenty          Rest

 

I can't remember the last day I slept in this late. I even woke without an alarm clock. This morning…the first of an extended holiday…a whole week from my teaching duties…found me lounging uncharacteristically in my bed for way too long.

The normal routines of work and the ministries that God called me to do at my church keep me very busy…and I thrive on these filled days.  Let’s be honest, if I did not stay very busy, I would be sitting around feeling sorry for myself…filling the hours wondering just what my life would be like if Mitchell were still here. But the reality is that sometimes I run my motor way too long and for too many hours at a time till eventually I am just so tired.

God had to have felt this way after he created the beautiful world we live in. He used six days to put together the most amazing collection of animals, plants, rocks, dirt, mountains, valleys, lakes and seas. Then in the next moment he decided to bless the next day, the seventh day, and rest. Was it the tiredness he felt that brought about the blessing of the seventh day, or was it the sheer splendor, the realization of the majesty of his creation.

Genesis 2:3 - And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

This concept of rest is so important that God included it later in the ten commandments.  This commandment was so important you could be put to death for working on the seventh day. 

 

 Exodus 23:12:

   ¹²Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest: that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed.

Exodus 35:2:

   ²Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you an holy day, a sabbath of rest to the LORD: whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death.

And Jesus also taught this important concept to his disciples.  He spoke of the need to rest often after he had spoken to a great crowd.

Mark 6:31:

³¹And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.

 

Matthew 11:28:

²⁸Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

 

I wonder just how late God slept after he created this exquisite planet we call earth. AND I just needed to thank him for an extended period, my spring break, to rest and enjoy his world. Thanks God for once again knowing just what I need and just when to give it to me.