a Sabbath

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On the seventh day He rested.

He wasn’t sleepy

His muscles were not sore.

There was an eternity of stuff to do.

An eternity of things to accomplish.

Eternity stretched out before Him with an endless to do list.

On the seventh day He rested.

He had just created us… and one of the first things He did with us…Rest.

as if to say…

Know that what I did was and is enough… Rest with Me.

We have mulled it over for years. A family this large in rest seemed insurmountable.  A family this large without rest seemed detrimental.  A heart’s desire and  no map to get there.

Then on Christmas it made more sense.  He spoke to us in a way that gave us direction.  Actually it was the day after Christmas.  On Christmas we have a tradition of going nowhere…. “a nobody goes in.  and nobody ever goes out.” (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory reference Gene not Johnny of course).  As long as we have had our family we have claimed Christmas as our own.. no hustle.. no bustle… no rush to get through it so that we can get to the next thing… just a lock down of sorts.  It is lovely.  You see.. we know that what we did was and is enough …. so we invite our children to just be with us.

Oh I see.

a template.

a direction.

a map.

Dare we give it a whirl?

We did.

It took some planning… we are still rookies.

I made sure most everything was prepared by sundown on Friday.  We explained to the kids what the concept was.  A slowing down. A making space.  Allowing room for pause and restoration.  There were lovely parts.  There were lonely parts.  There were fidgety shouldn’twegetsomethingdone parts.

But there was this one part… a part I recognize … it took me a moment, I knew I knew it from somewhere… it was the feeling I get on Passover… the feeling where He smiles and makes the center of our home glow… a smile that says, “you receive My Gift…you are taking time to receive My Gift.”

It was crazy really… as the sun set behind the trees across the field on Saturday night… in walked family.  Family bringing soup.  The family He had first told me about years ago.  The exact one!  When He had said , “Watch for who shows up.  Watch for who brings you soup .  Those are your community those are your true family.” OF all the planning I had done I had failed at dinner for Saturday night… and here it came walking through my door!   They came with gifts and food and warm bread… and a teensy little chair for the baby and books… you know how she loves books!

So we will take little steps.

We will give ourselves plenty of room.

We will give it another whirl.