Sabbath was made for humanity

Image by Scott Erickson - check it out on Insta

The acorn has dropped! Or if you're in some other part of the country maybe it was an apple, or disco ball, or moon pie. What's something your home town used to celebrate the new year? Whatever your local celebration was, it's official. The sprint is over. You made it!

Monday morning is coming - the 9-5, the grandkids, the textbooks. But first, this.

There's a moment in Mark 2 that stops me every time. Jesus and his disciples are walking through a grain field. They're hungry. So they pick heads of grain and eat them - right there, on the Sabbath.

A Pharisee sees this and can't believe it. You're working. On the Sabbath.

Jesus doesn't apologize. He reminds the man about David eating the bread of the Presence in the temple. Sacred bread. Forbidden bread. Bread that fed a hungry king.

Here's what gets me: God never meant to keep us hungry.

How many celebrations have you rushed through? How many mornings after Christmas did you wake up and immediately start thinking about what's next?

We do this. We turn joy into a checklist item. We experience it, check the box, move on.

But what if joy isn't meant to be experienced and released? What if it's meant to soak in? To change us?

God didn't create Sabbath so we'd be ready for Monday.

Read that again.

Sabbath wasn't preparation. It was the point. The seventh day wasn't a pause in creation - it was the culmination. The moment everything was leading toward.

Rest is the goal. Joy is the destination.

So here's what I'm asking: Don't rush this.

Let the coffee get cold while you stare out the window. Leave the decorations up an extra day. Sit in the quiet and let the blessings of these weeks settle into your bones.

There's work ahead, yes. There always is. But that work will wait for you to finish being loved.

Will you pray with me?

There’s lots of ways to practice Sabbath. Going on walks, reading a good book, sitting outside or at your window to watch the birds, getting lunch with a friend with no plans before or after. Whatever you can do to simply enjoy the world around you. I’ll invite you to pick one of those or another activity to bring into your rhythm of life. But also prayer (from Sojourners Magazine):

God of the Sabbath,

in your wisdom you created a day of rest,

to recharge our minds and bodies.

Send us your Spirit to guide us in wisdom,

so that our care for ourselves does not fall by the wayside

in our efforts to support those around us.

Amen.

“Listening is the first act of loving.”

Steph