June 16, 2011

Rest

After six days of creation, God rested.
After two days of junior high missions, we rested.

Sort of.

The infighting seems to have cooled some.
The questions are still rapid fire.
But after three hours of hard gardening work at the East Lake UMC Community Garden, we retired to Alabama Adventure, a local water/theme park for an afternoon of fun in the sun. The kids had a great time, and, though I did partake in a couple of rollercoaster rides, I tried to just relax.

Rest is an important thing. Without it we get grumpy. Without it we get touchy. Without we get unhealthy: physically, emotionally, and spiritually.  Sin creeps in with tiredness. We are less attuned to the Spirit when all we can think about is sleep.

God rested on the seventh day, and commands us to rest in him as well. We are to take time for refreshment because God cares deeply for us and wants us to know that our humanity relies upon him rather than our own ability to push through.

So we rested.
I'm still tired, of course, but we rested.

1 comment:

jennifer said...

I must admit, I've had to pray about my attitude toward this particular miracle before because it doesn't catch my attention as much as people being healed; the lame walking, walking on water; people being raised from the dead especially the widow of Nain's son-I sometimes think of this one as "here this one is again" and sort of overlook it-but the more I look at it-the more my feelings about this miracle change-it sort of almost seems a fulfillment of Psalm 22 verse 26-(I should have looked to see what Psalm is to be read this Sunday)The fact that there was so much left over proves that Jesus did not hypnotize the crowd into not being hungry-Jesus so much sees & is concerned with our physical needs-I also love the fact that Jesus had compassion on the people. (One of my favorite ways to think of Jesus) On Facebook I rambled about Jesus being a person with passion & I think of Jesus as a God not only of intelligence but a God of great feeling & compassion-I posted some links to Hava Nagila & other Jewish musicians on my facebook page trying to demonstrate my belief of the Jews & God's people as people of great feeling (passion)Mark's gospel points out that the grass was green-a feeling of abundance and the "Light of the World" providing color. After giving thanks, Jesus broke the bread which reminds me of that most sacred, Holy moment in communion. The left over bread was also broken. Sorry, I probably bored you with all this-but I'm sort of discovering things new to me in this miracle-this is the first time I recall seeking this in the Bible instead of dutifully reading it in the Lectionary-The Gospel of John points out that it occurred near the passover & that the crowd wanted to force him to be king-Jesus went to a mountain by himself after this-would be interesting to learn significance of this-since this miracle is repeated in all four Gospels, it must be significant-there must be something God really wants us to know about Him from this miracle