Rest

Welcome to the sacred. To the completeness. To the profound sense of accomplishment that comes not from doing more, but from knowing when to cease. Welcome to the seventh day, a day as vital and significant as all the other six that preceded it, yet different in its essential character. This is an invitation, not to emptiness, but to a different kind of fullness.

“Thus the heavens and the earth were completed 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.” (Genesis 2:1-3)

Here is rhythm built into the very fabric of existence.

God completes what He begins. There is intention here, purpose, a deliberate movement toward wholeness. The work of creation was not abandoned halfway through, not left unfinished or incomplete. It reached its intended conclusion, and in that completion, there was rest.

The seventh day is blessed and made holy. Not because nothing happens on it, not because it represents a void or an absence of activity, but precisely because something specific and deeply significant happens: we stop our working; we acknowledge that the world doesn’t depend on our constant effort, that the universe continues to unfold whether we are working or not.

The seventh day is a gift for the created, an inheritance given freely to those who are made in the image of God. It comes to us not because of what we’ve done, but because of who we are. It’s an act of grace, a reminder that we are human beings, not human doings.

Here, in the rest, in the pause, in the holy stopping, we find what we’ve been searching for all along in our endless moving: the sense that we are enough, that the world is good, that all is, in its deepest sense, well.

Here is the invitation:

Verses 1-2: to receive the Spirit again, to welcome Him as He hovers over our chaotic world. He has always done this, from the very beginning.

Verses 3-5: to step into order and rhythm from the emptiness and chaos of life; to understand you are called to walk in the light, in the day; and to embrace the possibility that you can discern what is truly good, for you will be able to see.

Verses 6-8: to open our ears to God speaking to you, and He calls you not to give up. Hang in there. It is not over for you. Space is being created for growth to come. Look up today and be thankful.

Verses 9-13: to receive God’s Word speaking to your dry ground. You don’t need more effort or strategy; you need His Word spoken into your life. The same voice that commanded forests from seed can speak to what lies dormant within you. Spring is coming to your dry ground.

Verses 14-19: to pause and witness the beauty of a sunrise or sunset. Failing to do this, we miss the very purpose for which time was created.

Verses 20-23: a day to listen to the sounds of our world that existed before we did. They are still here.

Verses 24-31: a moment to grasp that we bear God’s image. When we understand this truth, everything changes.

And so today, if this is your rest day, enjoy it.