Rest

This devotional considers Genesis 2:1-3 and 1:14, 22, 28.

In the Beginning, God created the heavens and the earth…

Thus the heavens and the earth were competed in all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

How beautiful. And, often, how nerve racking to stop doing, to stop, to rest. 

In the creation account, the Lord specifically blessed living creatures in water, and the birds of the air and said, Be fruitful and increase in number…. (I’m not sure why there’s no record of him blessing living creatures on land, but anyway, for now.) He blessed humankind and then said, Be fruitful and increase in number…The Lord also blessed the seventh day. With all other created things, God only saw that it was good. But some living things, human beings and the seventh day, he blessed.

Now, God’s blessing comes with his thanksgiving, his enthusiastic praise and his words of favor. The seventh day received all this thanksgiving, praise and favor above all other days. Each of the other days, God enjoyed his work, and admired it. But he seemed to celebrate the end, and with the emphasis of making it holy.

So, the first thing we know of that God created to be holy is a day of rest. It was a dedicated day that God made preparation for from the fourth day of creation. God said that the lights to separate day from night should serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years…He intended for there to be, at the very least, a day set aside for rest. But not any kind of rest—rest with the Lord. He set aside the day for him and us, together, to admire the work we do together in the earth, and to be refreshed.

Today, the Holy Spirit is impressing on me to take his created order to heart. He didn’t just tell us, God led by example: he rested…he rested from all his work…And as I mentioned before, he also made preparation for it. Today, this week, let’s prayerfully lean into God’s original, bright idea of trusting him with a whole day of not working. If you don’t have an imagination for what it’s supposed to look like, ask. I’ll be asking, too, and expecting grace to make room.

Amen.