A day of rest

A couple weeks ago, Marge and I were visiting some friends, and they were looking at a passage in Genesis. So when we got home I read the first three chapters of Genesis three or four times. But the part that kept going through my mind over and over again was the creation account. God worked or created for six days and then He rested. God has an infinite amount of strength, so in reality He didn't have to rest. But the thing is God chose to rest. Did He rest as an example for us to follow? I wonder!

What I got to thinking about is how we go and go five or six days a week and, even as we are going and going, we plan out all the stuff we want to do on sixth and seventh day. So by the end of the seventh day or the day of rest we are flat-out bushed.

When Marge and I first started going to church, we attended a small Wesleyan Church in Arthur, Nebraska, where the pastor was a woman we called Grandma Brown. Her husband we simply called Grandpa Brown. Marge and I were young and new to church, so we had millions of questions. One time we got to talking about working on Sunday, so the Browns shared some of their beliefs.

Cows had to be milked on Sunday just like Saturday or Monday or whatever day. Cows had to be fed hay on Sunday unless you could double up the feed on Saturday. Water had to be chopped in the winter where the tanks froze over. No problem in the summer, but there was ice all winter. And then Grandpa Brown got to talking about how they farmed some ground for shares. They'd work during the week but shut down everything on Sunday. But some of the neighbors noticed that the Browns' tractors were idle on Sunday, so they wanted to rent them to use on Sunday. Grandpa Brown said they couldn't. The tractors needed to rest as well. The Browns needed the money, but they stood firm in that Sunday was a day of rest. So after church on Sunday pretty much everyone either napped or had a meal together or simply went visiting and visited. That was it. First word that came to mind is boring! Not so!

But what if we hurry and rush and worry and fret and go here or there and on and on for six days. Might we need a day to let our spirit or soul catch up? A day to look back at our week and see where we have come from and where we are right now. Maybe a day to make a special cup of coffee and watch the sun set. Maybe a day to sit and listen to the mourning doves singing. Or listen to a squirrel chattering about something threatening. Maybe a bon fire!

Or maybe a little time to plan out the coming week, not stressfully but joyfully. Plan some sit breaks or joyful interludes. Maybe take 30 minutes for an ice cream. What about calling that friend you haven't chatted with for a coon's age? How long has it been since you dug that old Jew's Harp out and twanged a melody?

I really wonder if as a nation we have run and run and hurried and hurried till we are pretty much strung tighter than a string on a fiddle. We need to turn the thingies up on the end of the neck and let off some steam or tension.

Be honest now, couldn't you use a day of rest? A week or so ago I came down with something and just felt punky if you drop the "n". So my meals became "cup a soup", and I spent plenty of time resting. But I also spent time reading several books in the Bible. I didn't have to worry about "what I wasn't getting done". so I had time to just enjoy letting my spirit catch up.

I was sick but "refreshed".