Seventh Day

“God saw all that he had made, and it was very good…By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy…” (Genesis 1:31-2:2, NIV 2011).

I was trying to help my wife out this morning because she was planning to spend all Sunday afternoon catching up with paperwork. “You need to think about the Sabbath,” I told her, sincerely wishing good for her. She ignored me, like most spouses do their mates at times.
Then, after church I thought about my day tomorrow. I had been out of town at a medical meeting and catch-up was going to be heck. With my wife busy, I decided that I would run to the hospital and see my patients and then run by the office to complete my delinquent charts; this would give me a head start and remove a good deal of pressure when I return to work Monday. On my way in, I reflected on my words to my wife about her Sabbath. Halfway there, I turned around and headed back home.

I’m sure that God had a huge list of things He could have done to fine-tune His creation rather than just rest on that seventh day—but He did not; He let it go for a day. And I suspect that God’s Sabbath had little to do with legalism since only He defines the laws and only He sits as the legitimate judge of His own actions.
He may have just rested because “it was very good.”
In my case, the hardest thing about turning around from my plans to catch up with my work is the realization that the pressure I had planned to relieve will remain. My day tomorrow is going to be so much worse than if I had just spent a few hours today relieving that pressure. I will now have to trust God to get me through tomorrow.

Perhaps that’s what it’s all about.

Dear God,
Help me to allow the rest that you have established for me. Help me to trust you with that which is left undone.
Amen