Tag Archives: rest

Evening and Morning

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Sometimes newborn babies get their mornings and evenings mixed up. They sleep all day and stay awake all night. This behavior often cycles back around when those babies turn into teenagers.

Most of us operate on the concept that the day begins when we wake up in the morning. As daylight disappears into the darkness of night, we perceive that the day is done.

But that’s not the way God sees it.

At the end of each of the six days of creation God said,
“And there was evening and there was morning—” in that order.

God wasn’t mixed up. That’s the way He intended it.

Based on Genesis 1, the Jewish Sabbath begins on Friday night at sundown, because that is the start of the new day. If we were to adopt this evening—morning format, the first thing we would do at the start of every day is go to bed. Rest. Do nothing. Trust that the world will carry on without us for a few hours. Then, we would continue the day by getting up and working, being productive, taking care of business.

Adam was created on the sixth day and given the assignment of tending a garden. But the new man didn’t get right to work the next day because the seventh day was for rest, declared to be holy. The first thing Adam did was rest and enjoy creation. God set it up this way because we have great value in His eyes based on who we are—created by God in His own image—not because of what we do. He loved us before we could accomplish anything.

Culture shouts:
“Get to work. Be efficient. Create output.”

God says,
“Start with rest. Trust Me to take care of you. Then go and do.”

It seems backwards.
Or maybe we’re the ones who have our days and nights,
I mean, nights and days, mixed up.

Evening, morning and noon, I will pray.
Psalm 55:17

Easy Button

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easy buttonI have an Easy Button on my desk.  I push it sometimes just for fun.  “That was easy!”   People can’t seem to resist the big red disk.  Almost everyone who comes into my office gives it a try.

“Easy” is a popular topic.  Amazon has 171,584 books with the word “easy” in the title.  “Easy Weeknight Dinners”, “Easy Weight Loss”, “Medical Surgical Nursing Made Incredibly Easy”.  Wait…what?

The only time Jesus said something was easy He was discussing yokes and burdens.  “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”  Matthew 11:28-30.

By the end of most days, I qualify as weary and burdened.  Rest sounds good.  Real good.  I’m all for an evening in the recliner (also known as an easy chair), watching TV and drifting off by 9 o’clock.  Ok…..8:30.

That’s why the next thing Jesus says is so jarring.  Take my yoke.  Weren’t we just talking about rest?  Isn’t a yoke an implement used in work?  I picture two oxen trudging through a field, collared by a heavy wooden bar across their shoulders, pulling a disc that turns over crusty, stony ground.  It’s a dirty, sweaty scene — a far cry from my la-z-boy.

Jesus turns the whole idea of rest and work on its head.  Resting isn’t the absence of labor — resting is yoking up with Him.

There’s an old Jewish legend that says the carpenter’s shop in Nazareth was known for making exquisite yokes.  They were custom made to fit perfectly and finely balanced so as not to be cumbersome.  Easy yokes to make light burdens.

Is it time for a trade-in?  Your yoke for His?

Wigglers

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Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Matthew 11:28

I gave birth to four babies, one at a time, over eight years. Two were snugglers, one was a wiggler and the other was a snuggler/wiggler combo. When I wanted a sweet-baby-cuddle, the wiggler would do that back-arching thing and constantly be moving, shifting, reaching, squirming. We had hugs and kisses, to be sure; but long rock-a-byes weren’t on this child’s agenda. The world was too interesting and stimulating to sit long. However, occasionally there was an owie, or a fever, or a broken arm. Then, the wiggler would settle in on my lap and succumb to snuggles. Wigglers sometimes have to be forced to snuggle.

I’ve been wiggling too much lately. God has graciously invited me to run into His arms, which I have done day after day, over and over. But I’m hard to hold; I arch my back and jostle and churn. Unlike the wiggles of a little one who is just on the go, mine is a restless, agitated motion that can’t seem to come to rest in the Loving Arms until I’ve worn myself out with some inner commotion. Inevitably, a painful situation (owie), or a heated conversation (fever), or a fractured relationship (broken arm) will sap my strength enough to halt the fussing. Sometimes I have to be forced to rest. But, oh, to learn to lean on the Everlasting Arms without all the wiggling.