Recently a friend posted a note about what is happening in the world while we are staying “safer at home.” The air and water appear more clean and clear. Wild animals are coming back to the places where they once freely roamed. Families are spending more time together. We are taking time to listen to each other. We are actually getting some rest.
The meme suggested a 10-20 day period each year where all the world just shuts down. This would be a time for the earth to heal, and for people to rest.
I couldn’t help myself. I had to make a snarky comment.
“Hey, instead of only 20 days each year, why not make it once each week? Perhaps on the last day of each week. It would be a day of rest. No one would work. We’d have to come up with a catchy name, though. Why not call it ‘Sabbath’?”
We all need time to rest and heal. Even in this time – especially in this time – when we have found ways to keep ourselves busy. I don’t know about you, but for me, much of that busy-ness is fretting about the things I can’t do or worrying about the fact that I am not doing enough!
What if we did take the sabbath seriously? We could get some practice now, and then it would be a built-in habit once we get back to “normal” life. We might even begin to heal.
“For six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.”
Exodus 20: 9-11
God who took time to rest, remind us that we, too, need the opportunity to recover from our labor and reflect upon our place in your world. Help us to take time to pause and listen to those around us. Help us to find you in the quiet moment. And invigorate us for all that lies ahead. Through the love and in the name of our precious Savior we pray. Amen.
Pastor George