Narrow - A Christmas Reflection

 

Do you ever think what the first garden must have been like.  Consider that the One who had made all plant life; all the types and species, all the fruit and vegetables, all the flowers and trees, designed and planted a garden.   Each plant placed for maximum beauty and function.  Were there grassy lawns surrounded by Poplar trees?  Perhaps a gravel path trailed through a mass of daisies and bee balm leading to a Koi Pond.  Was the sound of the nearby river audible?  The riot of color from the throng of flowers placed in beds of fine soil and massed on distant hillocks would delight the eyes and fill the air with sweet scents.  The trees would have been impressive.  Tall cedars, even taller fir trees and rounder fruit trees. Add into this the fruiting plants, nut trees and vegetables. There were pears and pomegranates, Kiwi and figs, apples and cherries, and masses of berries; black, blue, red; all growing, placed in perfect proportion, in perfect placement.  The eye would travel over the low vines growing along the ground with the delicate purple flowers peaking out.  It would lift to the lower plants; wide leaved hosta, tiger grass, to the roses of a wild array of every color filling the sight with a prism of color.  The garden, east of somewhere we don’t know, was in Eden. Neither its size nor topography is known. But there it was in all is splendor and beauty, home to two people.  It was their place to work, to tend and since weeds were a thing of the future, the work may have been to tend each plant to help it reach its best, its fullest potential.  Everything they needed was there, food, work, friendship and love.  A morning of tending this beautiful place, and afternoons strolling in the garden with the Creator, that was their schedule.    The garden was full, exuberant, and wide and open to them. Everything was there for them, save one tree, one fruit.  There was nothing lacking, nothing missing, they had no need for anything, they had paradise.  Yet that one fruit which they did not need they took and in an instant the wide exuberance began to contract as a funnel winds toward the narrow end.  The garden behind them as the gate slammed shut and only a narrow, dry way ahead of them as they walked away.  Away from the riot of colors, away from the sweet smells at every turn, away from the abundance of fruits and vegetables, they walked.  Now new a schedule that required sweaty, hard, frustrating work in order just to eat was the outline of their day.  Now friendship and love were replaced with a mixture of blame and apologies, of love and hate.  The wideness of the garden became a narrow tunnel through life hemming in the couple and their children and their children.  Narrowing through the ages, an ever tighter squeeze, until it reached another garden, Gethsemane.  Since it is an urban garden, Gethsemane is different from Eden.  It is a garden of olive trees mainly and grassy areas, with paths to walk. It is spare and dry. 

   It was a place for people to go to get relief from city life, from heat and noise.  And it is the place Jesus went when the narrowing of history was at its apex.  Here He was faced not with many choices and only one prohibition, as they were in Eden but with one choice having given up the choice to be powerful, to be ruler, to be wealthy and famous and loved.  Here He wrestled with the one choice to do what was asked of Him, being finally only by Himself, with no companion, no helper, no one to go along with Him.  The narrow way, once He made the choice to obey, lead Him up a hill, into the darkness of death, down a hill and into a closed tomb.  Although it is more accurate to say that the narrow way, the long funnel of time, lead through a tomb, out into the sunlight in a new morning, a wide morning, an exuberant morning.  From a bountifully wide garden to a blasted field through a stone cave, He leads all who will to the exuberant paradise, the new garden where joy is the air to breathe and love is the common language.  Life is no longer narrow, dull of color and frustrating for there is joy set before us and hope as sure as the sunrise.  And that is why I celebrate Christmas.

So This is Christmas

So this is Christmas? 

Beginning after Halloween, the United States leaps directly into Christmas.  Anticipation is amped up, hopes are raised, the mighty machinery of dream come true fulfillment is fired up. Is it because we celebrate the birth of the King, the long awaited Savior of humanity?  Not really; but instead we celebrate the achievement of a year in the black for the economy of the United States.  The best and greatest item on the wish list of the USA is an economy in the black with a stellar net profit. 

Black Friday is the first day of Advent in this lead up to Christmas.  Coming on the literal heels of a day of national thanksgiving, the day of unparalleled spending sets the stage for the coming Christmas celebration.   The population forgoes a night tucked into a comfortable bed for the thrill of the hunt for a bargain; the excitement of the chase for the perfect gift; the satisfaction of enduring the lines and humanity all in search of the best gift for the lowest price.  Vans piled high with bags of gifts and sleepy, crabby people head home late on Friday afternoon, having completed the first day of advent.  

How did the religious celebration of the birth of the King get usurped to become the engine that drives the economy?  The first recorded celebration of the birth of Christ on December 25 was in the year 336 during the reign of the Roman Emperor, Constantine.  Soon after, Pope Julius made the December date official as the day to celebrate the birth of Jesus.   Celebrations of the day were varied according to the country and epoch.  Early on the celebrations were raucous and lively, more akin to Mardi gras.  After attending Mass, the poor of the town would go to the homes of the rich and demand food.  Generally, the demands would be met.  Roles of the wealthy and the worker were exchanged for a day and chaotic celebrating was common.   Christmas celebrations have been alternately outlawed and then instituted to insure the general peace in society.  This had nothing to do with the actual reason for celebrating; the birth of the long waited king, but rather of serving the social mood.

  Our celebration of Christmas derives largely from the 1700-1800’s and the literature of Washington Irving and Charles Dickens.  During this time in society, childhood came to be more valued and the care of the poor by the more fortunate was seen to be a good thing.  Growing from this, the American family began to see Christmas as a time of peace and nostalgia.  Celebrations included gift giving as the value of children increased.  Spoiling a child became a good thing to do at Christmas.  Food for celebration and gifts for giving all had to be bought and paid for.  As a society and culture we began to save money to insure a good Christmas.  After all, we would need to have money to spend on all that was needed for the grand celebration.

So here we are, at the mercy of advertisers, culture and the economy, directing us to buy more, buy larger, buy earlier, and buy a lot!  What has become of the celebration of the King?

In some cultures, the birth of a new ruler, a king or queen, is great cause for celebration.  It means the continuation of a rule of government, an assurance of protection and peace. 

The people acclaim the new ruler with the loyalty born out of the assurance that the ruler will protect them.  It is an exchange of promises, unspoken perhaps, but certain.

For the Christian, the birth of the King is more than an unspoken promise to protect.  It is the news that the rescue is immanent.  The rescuer on the way, in fact, He has arrived.  The promise is being played out in the here and now.  But why is the birth of the King also seen as the onset of the rescue you ask.  Why does a new king have to rescue His loyal people?  The new King has to rescue His people precisely because they are not loyal.  In truth, His people are rebels and traitors.  The King has been born to rule, but His people have long ago abandoned Him and His kingdom.   In more than figurative ways, His people have gone over to the side of the enemy, taking up the cause of the foe and casting their lot with him.  While the talk from the other side sounded good and reasonable at first, soon it became apparent that it was all a lie and here the people of the coming king were caught.  In the camp of the enemy, traitors to the king and his kingdom, with no way home, they were trapped.  How could they ever make up for this rebellion?  How could they ever get home?  The short, hard answer was there is nothing they could do.  Their backs were up against a wall, they were trapped, with out hope of ever going home, ever going back to the kingdom.  They had vague inklings of a planned rescue, but no idea how it could happen.  To be saved from this fate brought on by evil of their own, sounded wonderful, but impossible.  But with God, all things are possible. 

A savior, the rescuer, and a king, in the same person, promised long ago, has arrived.  A door in the wall, way out of the trap, a way home has been born.  And not only is the rescuer here to rescue, but He is also here to rule in a truthful and good manner.  This is the king that Christmas celebrates. A king who is right always; a king who is generous and forgiving; a king who rules with wisdom and grace, this is the rescuer/king. 

When seen as the celebration of the rescuing King, Christmas is much more than gifts and money spent.  It is a celebration of our freedom from death and our own sin.  It becomes a commemoration of the rescue and the homecoming we can now have.  It is a day to rejoice once more as we recall that it has all really happened in time and at a real place here in our world.  The truth has come to affect our release from the lie we believed.  The darkness has been lit up with the brightness of the Light who came into the world to shine on any who hate the darkness.  It truly is a day to celebrate and so we do. 
Let us celebrate the reality of what Christmas is; the promise has been kept, the rescue is complete, the King is born.

Fully Alive

 I remember the long summer evenings I enjoyed as a child.  The warm breezes, the freedom of being outdoors with friends, running, riding bikes, playing Hide and Seek, with no worries about the next day, no worries about anything at all! 

I particularly remember the long evenings in Michigan, running around with friends as we went from one home to another, playing baseball or tag.  The evening was filled with fun, talk and joy.  The memories are full of hanging out in the fort we had all built from scrap lumber.   Located in the back yard, we would hang out there for hours on end, dreaming up more projects to build.  The sun would drop down in the sky and dusk would settle over us, yet we still remained.  Always playing and looking forward to the next fort to build, the next game to play.  Only when my dad would whistle his distinctive whistle would I know it was time to go home for the night.  That whistle of his could be heard for blocks and was the call for me and my siblings to come in.  If we were in the neighborhood, we could hear it.  No excuses. 

Once I heard the call to go home, I still tried to stretch the moments.  Clearly, I was not ready to head home and go to bed for the night.  But no matter how I tried, once the second whistle came, goodbyes were said and home I went. 

The time I spent with my friends, playing and talking and planning lasted right up until the time I left to go home. I squeezed every moment I could out of those summer evenings.  In contrast, there are times I hear of others who stop playing, stop talking and stop planning long before the call to go home is sounded.  Maybe you know someone who has stopped early.  Maybe you are one who has just dropped out, if so, I have a question for you; why do we stop living, because we know we are also dying?  

 We don’t know for sure the time any one of us will be called home. And, although we may know the time is getting near, why do we come to a standstill?  We stop talking, stop playing and stop planning, stop thinking, in effect we stop living.  The marvelous truth is that while we are still here, God is still using us. Until the call comes we are to be about His work.  So why give up, sit down, shut the door and close the blinds?  The life He has given us is truly His gift to us so play with it, use it, and enjoy it.  The time will come to hand the gift back to Him, but hand it back fully used, worn out, scraped, dented and with an empty tank.  When He calls us home, present to Him a life fully lived for Him, for His purposes through His power. 
There is no playground, hospital room, military barracks, college dorm, house or apartment that cannot be a place of living for Him and enjoying His power and grace.

So, I say again, Live up to the moment you hear the whistle, live joyously, fully and gracefully.

Because I Could Not Stop for Death

Another person in our church is dying.  Another family will be without a mother, a husband will lose his soul mate.  The sadness is overwhelming at times.  I prayed for healing and it did not come.  The family prayed for healing and yet there she lies, dying.

In thinking this over, I realized a couple of things.  My sadness is true and real, but the core issue is the loss here of this person; the loss to her family to her friends and to her church.  My sadness is appropriate, but not the center.  When in this sorrow, the focus must be, as in all things, heavenward.  If my sorrow becomes the focus, then any hope of ministry to the family and friends becomes self serving. Sorrow that finds comfort from Heaven can then give the same comfort. For each of us then weeping and sorrow are good when death is the issue, for they express the feelings and give place to the insult that death is to us all.  They must move heavenward though, in order to find peace.  

Which leads to my second realization; we are all acting as though death is a new thing, as though we are the first to experience it and we really should not have to die. 

Listen to any local news program and notice how death is generally one of the lead stories.  Death always makes the news.  Why is that?  Death has been a part of earthly existence since nearly the beginning of time.  Death is not a surprise.  Everyone we know that is no longer on this earth has died.  None of us have any relatives from, say 1700, who are living.  No, all of them have died.   But still, death always takes us by surprise.

Maybe we resist death and fight it because it truly is foreign to us. Maybe we are surprised by it because we were never meant to die, but to live.  We are surprised when death finds us. 

“Because I could not stop for death-

  he kindly stopped for me-“         Emily Dickinson

How then to live as those who must die, but are ultimately meant to live?  A question worth pondering…..

Of Clouds and Cops

When God was leading His people in the desert, teaching them about Himself and proving His love and care in that leading, He made sure His presence was visible to them.

The pillar of cloud, hovering above the Most Holy Place in the tabernacle, was the evidence of that presence.  As the sign of His presence, the pillar of cloud would direct the travels of the people, His people.  If the cloud lifted it was time to move on.  If the cloud stopped, it was time to stop and if the cloud remained, it was time to remain.

The pillar of cloud also had the appearance of a pillar of fire in the night time, so was at all times visible.  At all times God was with them.  The people had evidence.  They could see the pillar, day or night.  There could be no doubt that God was there with them. 

I try to imagine what it must have been like; to know that the God Who had done great and amazing miracles in order to free me was within my sight.  His promised presence was right there, in the center of the camp.  I would have had to fight to miss the evidence of His presence.  How would I act with Him right there?  Well how do any of us act when we see a police car following behind us on a road?  We make sure our speed is within the limits, we use our turn signals and we don’t pick up our phones!  We tow the line, not wanting to get a ticket!  The threat of being found out, of receiving a ticket, convinces us to act within the law. 

Having also been in trouble in traffic, it was comforting to me to know that the police were arriving to help.  The police not only “encourage” all to drive within the law, but are available to help when trouble arises. 

So with the people of God, seeing His visible presence, I would think they would be wise in their actions and quick to seek Him out for help.  He was right there.

But no!  In true form, so familiar to me, instead of being quick to ask for His help, they are quick to complain.  Instead of praying to this visible God, they complain among themselves.   After all, the food was a bit monotonous, even if it was miraculous.  How shallow we are, truly.  The people have a visible presence of the God Who is leading them, Who has rescued them, Who has preformed miracles in their sight and they complain because they remember the good, tasty food of their Egyptian Captivity.  How tasty sin is! How utterly foolish we are.  Only we can see miracles as bland stuff.  Only we can call deliverance boring and tedious. 

This is a wake up call to us to see with clear vision the work of God and the love of God right in front of our eyes.  To see it and to rely on that presence; to understand what His presence means all to us.  Pray to see the miracles and not be bored, to see redemption and instead of yawning, to rejoice.

Two Gardens

Have you ever noticed the way some things in scripture are like bookends?  Those types of things really stand out to me and I like to investigate them to see if they really do have a purpose beyond the telling of a story. 

Today I was thinking about Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, and when I think like this I am usually out walking and asking God to direct my thoughts, to teach me from the scriptures I am pondering.   The passage in question, from the Gospel of Mark, tells of Jesus being agonized and in prayer, to the Father over His impending torture and crucifixion.  Luke’s gospel adds insight in letting us know that the prospect of the coming events were so hard for Jesus to take in that his sweat was with drops of blood.   In no uncertain terms, the bible lets us know that what lay before Jesus was horrific.  He was soul sick. 
His friends were there to watch with Him, but they were sleepy, worn out with sorrow as Luke says.  Emotionally spent, they slept.  But Jesus prayed dropping to the ground; He begged His Father to change the course, to change the future, to rescue Him.  That is not all He prayed though.  He also prayed “Not my will, but Yours.”    Three times we are told He prayed and asked God to remove what was ahead.  Three times He begged the Father to rescue Him and three times He also prayed for the Father to have His way.

The answer that He got from His Father was that there was to be no rescue; the course and the future would stay the same.  The answer was no. The plan was to go forward and an angel was sent to strengthen Him in order that He could continue on and so He did.

There was another garden scene, eons before, where others of God’s children lived.  A lovely place with all anyone could want and need, to include friendship with God.  These two, living in the garden,  were challenged about following God; it was so easy something must be missing. They were challenged about God’s integrity, about His love for them.  Did He really give them all they could want?  Perhaps there was more, and perhaps it was easily acquired.  Without the least bit of struggle or thought, without prayer or discussion with the God Who put them there in the garden,  the two responded to the call of God on their lives by saying “Not your will, but mine.”   You were not for us, You don’t love us, You have kept something back. “Not your will, but ours.”   And so the long trek to decay began, the fracture of love, of intimacy; the destruction of purpose and being all began in a garden.   My will, not yours. 

But see how the undoing of Jesus, is the undoing of the curse. Observe how the soul deep sorrow of Jesus is the unraveling of the soul condemning guilt of all.   His choice to do the will of God, not His own will, began the rollback of decay, the fracture began to heal, and intimacy could now be mended.  In the garden where destruction came all seemed lost, so lost the two were kicked out forever, until in another garden recovery took  the shape of the Savior’s bowed head and the words, “Not My will, but Thine.”

Trust 101

I have a friend whose oldest daughter is quite close to her father.  He has been a coach for her in sporting activities and helped with her school work.  He has taught his girl much about the business he owns and she helps in the work in small ways.  So recently, when I was asked to pray for this child because her father had to be out of town, it got me to thinking.

This father will be traveling out of town during a big tournament in which his daughter is set to compete, and she will be without his presence and the support that gives. 

This  girl is understandably upset at her father missing the tournament, but she is also worried for his safety and this has affected her appetite.  This sweet child only wants her father with her.  She feels his absence strongly and it affects her physically and emotionally. 

She has to trust that he is still rooting for her and her team to win.  She has to trust that he will do all he can to return to her.  She has to trust that he thinks of her even when they are not together.  She has to learn to trust; to believe in her father’s care even when he is not there. 

 And that is the hard lesson each child of the Heavenly Father must also learn.  That though we cannot see Him, we know He is present.  That though we cannot feel Him we know He loves us.  Though He unseen, we know He is working for us to the praise of His glory.  Oh, trust…How difficult to rely on that which our senses cannot detect. We are so tied to the sensual, the visual, and the auditory.

 Yet we are called to trust in God, and this can only happen as we believe what He says and rely on it.  We hear Him and we listen and do what He says; we read His word and act upon it, fully or not so fully expecting Him to act as He has said.  Trust moves in as doubts are answered and faith is built.  As with love, trust is built up slowly, over time and through circumstances.  The process of becoming a person who trusts is not easy, it feels like a gamble to us.  It is not certain; the outcome could go either way as we see it from our vantage point. But consider the perspective of the father or the girl; he fully intends to come home after his trip.  He will follow the championship game, if even by getting text updates during the game, he will be thinking of his daughter even though he is miles away.  For him, the trust is not a gamble; trust is not even the word to use.  The

word to use is love.

Of course he cares about what she is feeling and what her activities are and the importance of the tournament to her, because he loves her.  She cannot read his mind, so relies on his presence; she relies on his spoken words.

 But this time she will learn to remember.  Remember his words of encouragement from before; remember all the games he has coached in the past and all the encouragement he has given her previously and she will learn to trust him even when he is not there in person.

And so with each of us, we remember each time God has answered our prayers. We recall what He has said in His word, what His Spirit has placed on our hearts and how He has always been there, even as He promised.

The Ant and the Child

In this moment, how can I appreciate all that is?  My mind is focused on what I hope will happen in the near future.  My ears are straining to hear the news about the change that is coming, is in fact here, I hope.  My eyes look for the signs that my hoped for future is beginning.

Many of my thoughts are already living there, planning how it will proceed, what it will look like and how it will unfold, how to prepare for it, what I need to do to be ready.

After all, there was that promise, indication, feeling, sense that God was doing this leading, this new thing.  I should be like the ant of Proverbs chapter 6.  Nothing slows down the ant, even the lack of a leader does not stymie his efforts to provide for himself. The ant will be ready for whatever happens in the time ahead!

  Preparing for the future I am hoping will come; I am always looking forward, beyond the horizon.  And, believe me, that is a difficult sight to see, because anything beyond the horizon is not visible to me, the angle of sight does not allow it.  Yet, I strain to make it out, to discern its shape, as if my seeing causes it to happen. 

How then to focus on the moment in which I can see without straining;  that present time in which I do not have to strain to hear?  In Jen Wilkin’s book None Like Him, she cites Psalm 131 as a beginning.

My heart is not proud, Lord,
    my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
    or things too wonderful for me.
² But I have calmed and quieted myself,
    I am like a weaned child with its mother;
    like a weaned child I am content.

³ Israel, put your hope in the Lord
    both now and forevermore.

Having all it needs met; the child in her mother’s arms rests content.  The mother is protecting, leading and caring for the young child.  The need to see what is ahead is dispensed with as it is the responsibility of the mother, not the child. 

But note also that the speaker of the psalm has worked to calm and quiet himself.  This is the beginning of being in the present moment.  Being aware of the need to calm down, to quiet oneself, to focus on who is leading you, who is carrying you, who is caring for you; therein lays the source of the contentment: Contentment like that of a fully satisfied and loved child. 

 What a different picture than that of the ant, gathering, trekking back and forth, carrying the needed food.  The image of the ant is appropriate for teaching the lesson of the value of work, the responsibility to provide, but not for the idea of racing to the next thing.  Even the ant is aware of the need of the moment.

Living in the present, in the given moment of my existence is going to be a behavior I will have to learn.  I think the child in her mother’s arms is the place to start, being aware of all that is here in this moment and savoring it to the full, and being aware that the One who leads me will do so at the perfect time.  Meanwhile, let me rest, content.

The Remedy for a Chaffed Soul

There are certain people that I just don’t care for.  And I don’t care for them because in the past they have upset me or hurt someone I do care for.  So I just don’t like them.  I didn’t think of them often but when I did, the stomach churning and simmering resentment surged. These people had hurt me or someone I cared for, had bad mouthed someone I love.  And even though that person had long since forgiven the offense, I held it close and kept it in my mind and heart.   Like a secret prize, I protected it, hidden away.
 

And then the light of the Words of God broke through; Mark 11:25 “…and whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive your trespass.”  I fully expected to be forgiven by God for my sins, because He has promised that to us in 1John “…if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 

And even though I knew that harboring unforgiveness was wrong, it did feel justified.  As self appointed protector of those I love, I was not going to put up with any betrayal or bad mouthing.  Even if I could not stop the actions of the others, I could hold them in contempt.  And I did! For years, I harbored the grudges.  Held the feelings close, disliked anything about the people, and did not want to see or interact with them.  Basically slandering them to myself, feeding the feeling of betrayal, I let the anger simmer. 

Like a chaffing of the soul, I stayed irritated with them, there could be no softening.  But the balm of the truth faced me down and showed me the soothing remedy.  Beginning with small prayers, I prayed for these betrayers.  Prayers for God’s blessing on their lives, for His leading and healing for them turned out to be healing for me as well.  And a faithful Father led me to the place to ask forgiveness of Him for keeping their sin alive in my heart, long after He had buried it.  He led me there through the action of forgiving these others for the offense I had held to so tightly.  They never knew, still do not, but I spoke the words of forgiving about them, and so set myself free.

God was not ignoring the sin of the others, and He was not ignoring my attempts to exact justice, a justice that only He is worthy to exact.  Placing the offense to me in His capable hands and emptying my sin stained hands of it was like feeling the relief of ointment on a chapped hand, the soothing of oil, covering the sore spots on my skin.  Giving up to God what is His and ending the self made position of protector of loved ones left me to be healed, to be forgiven, to be free of the weight and the soreness in my soul.

I did not want to be left with unforgiveness; I did not want to miss out on the fullness of what God had for me; I did not want to risk joy for the sake of imagined human retribution.  And in His infinite grace, God led me to that place. 

GO!

Mat 28:19-20 “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the

name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all

that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

This last command, given by Jesus to His followers, told them to GO.   To go and to  

make disciples.   The going had a purpose and it had an endpoint.   In thinking about

this, I thought that the command to go is different in tone from the idea of leaving.  To go

is forceful, pointed, urgent.  It is directed toward a goal or an end.  We have been told to

go to a place, a destination and once there to serve; teaching and baptizing.  There is a

reason for us to go.  We have a purpose to be fulfilled.    The command to go does not

give a follower of Jesus the option to stay.

On the other hand, to leave is not a command, it is a decision one makes.  It is almost

passive in its action.  One can leave or not, can leave even if there is no reason to leave or

purpose to be achieved.  One can also leave with or without a command to go.  Leaving is

not a command; it is a response, a reaction.  And to leave is much less forceful in tone

than to go.

Jesus did not tell us to leave, He told us to go.  Our response then, must be to go.  To Go

is defined as the active movement of traveling from one place to another.  But we don’t

go flippantly or lazily, we go with the expectation of serving the kingdom.  We go to let

the world know that there is a King and He does rule.  We go to let the world know that

this current world is not all there is.  The Kingdom of God is among us and is coming in

fullness and we all need to be ready for it.  We go to teach others about the Kingdom of

God and the culture and laws of the coming kingdom.  We are ambassadors.  Living in a

foreign land, but keeping the customs of home, of the kingdom.  As ambassadors, we

continually remember our kingdom, and promote it as we are going out and about. 

And we live by the rules and laws and ethics of our home, where the King lives.  In going,

we carry our home with us, and we show the world what it is like to live in the kingdom.

Our speech, our actions and our attitudes all teach what the King has commanded.  We

look like people from a different place, act like people with a different ethic, speak with

the accent of one whose language is the language of the king. 

And so we go.   Perhaps we go to another land, and spread the news of the kingdom

there.  Maybe we go to a new city and let the people living there know that the king is

coming soon.   Or, we simply go across the street and tell our neighbor about the king

who loves them and has been searching for them and has invited them to come .

The Grace of Rest

Grace in the time of rest

Where I live, people are always busy; busy preparing for the next storm, the next party, the next day.  People are proud of their work ethic, and proud of their accomplishments.  They work hard, they are reliable, they get the job done, whatever the job is.

How then can rest be a good thing, a good practice to do?  After all, any found time is useful for catching up and getting a head start on the next day’s work, or project, or meal.

It was realizing the hard work many of the people I know are doing that I  was also  thinking of how I would explain the idea of a Sabbath rest to a very busy friend who is not at all involved with God.  Since the idea comes from Him and my friend is unfamiliar with His ways and ideas, how could I explain that rest from regular work is a command, a rule, if you will, from the Creator of the world?

If rest is good, then how can one maintain their work record, work ethic? 

But in my thoughts an idea came flying into the picture. That thought was  the idea of grace, of undeserved favor.  Is the idea of a day of rest in part a reminder that all we are and all we have comes from the grace of the Creator? 

1Co 4:7 ‘…What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you   boast as if you did not receive it? “

Our abilities, our thoughts, our jobs and our lives have all been given to us as a gift from

 The Creator, we did not engender them, we use them, and we hone them and train

ourselves in the use of them, but they are gifts, given freely.

In much the same way a parent cares for a child and does not expect the child to perform

adult tasks, the Creator, the Father, cares for His created ones by mandating a rest, a

time when the gifts He has given can be put down, put aside and we can rest.  The future

is not dependant on our abilities or our effort,  just as providing for a family is not the

work of the children.  Our responsibility lies in using the gifts as given for the work set

 before us.  The end goal is not to get ahead, but to get nearer to the Creator.  Even as  the

 parents provide and the children are provided for.  We can seek to get ahead, but only at

 the cost of our  health and our  soul. It is the Creator that runs the universe, not us.  It is

 His story to unfold, not ours to write.  Finding our place in the story and in the universe

 allows us to both  receive and use these gifts and to put them aside and rest.

 God provides and we are the recipients.  Rest comes as one reminder that all we have is

a gift, freely given by the gracious favor of the Creator.  It is time to rest in His grace.