the comment was made to me at work the other day about how i was more chipper than usually. i found that very interesting and also telling of how important rest is to us as humans.
for the first time in months, my wife and i took a real sabbath. we actually rested. i dont mean we sat around and watched TV. but we spent some time before the Sabbath, preparing the house and ourselves. we cleaned up and prepared for a time of rest. we had a wonderful meal to welcome in the day of rest. and then we rested. we knew we were resting and it was wonderful. so no surprise when i showed up to work immediately following the Sabbath more chipper than usual.
something i think that really set this Sabbath apart from the rest was the preparation to rest. growing up, we as a family never prepared to rest, we just rested. and that rest was good, but not great. my wife and i never really had a good rest either. we would always be bickering or whatever else came along. we just went wherever events would take us. there was no intentional rest.
however, as i studied more about seeing Jesus in a Jewish perspective, i found that Jesus would have considered a day to consist of an evening and a morning. (this is the order in which Genesis puts night and day) so in a hebraic mindset, the day begins at sunset and ends at the next sunset. a few months back, my wife and i decided to begin having our Sabbath begin in the evening of the day before and then go until the next evening. as a result of this a couple things happened. we found that we did more work to prepare for the rest than normal. and we found that work was rewarding. it feels good to have things in order. we found that the dedicated time at the evening meal where we would pray and read Scripture really helped us remember the Sabbath-Giver. finally, we found that our rest was much, much more restful.
i dont know why it is true, but we have found that keeping an evening/morning perspective has brought much more rest in our lives. but back to the present…
this Sabbath was the first time in months that we prepared the evening before. (mostly this has been due to my work schedule being erratic, however….) anyway, setting our minds on God and finding rest in Him really made our Sabbath, well, restful.
and for yall, may your Sabbath bring you rest. may you find God to be your Rest-Giver.
