Rest

Sundays are crazy. Like, having a blender with no lid kind of crazy. At our house we have the “joy” of getting two toddlers fed, cleaned, dressed and ready in an hour. Less if we are lucky enough for them to sleep while we get ready. Most weeks we are also overseeing 6 other children getting up, fed, dressed and ready during this chaos. About ten minutes prior to leaving the house I usually start getting dressed and trying to make some sense of my hair.

This past Sunday was no different than the rest. Equally crazy, caffeinated and rushed. During church my sweet friend’s baby was fussy and tired. She brought him into the service with us and my husband and I quickly fought over who got to hold him (because he is the sweetest little thing). I held him during the music portion of worship and while I swayed him back and forth he laid his little head on my shoulder and got incredibly still.

Two things happened in that moment. First, I wondered about why it is so incredibly sweet to hold a baby and rock him to sleep. Second, I thought about how much trust these little ones must have in us to be able to fall asleep while we hold them.

Both of these realizations brought me to a place of worship within that moment of worship itself.

This is a picture, I believe, of what God offers us.

He says to us, “come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

I don’t know any person who doesn’t feel weary and burdened at times. Or all of the time. This verse is for us! He is offering us an invitation to rest in Him.

There are so many more Scriptures with this same sentiment. He gives us green pastures to lay in, despite the fact that we feel the scorching sun and lack of rain at times.

… and when we don’t take Him up on the offer of rest, we have this reminder from David, “Return to your rest, my soul, for the Lord has been good to you” (Psalm 116:7). We sometimes have to tell our own souls to be at rest. We have every reason to be confident in the fact that God is good and He takes good care of those He loves.

“God gives rest to His loved ones” (Psalm 127:2B NLT).

We can trust Him enough to find rest in His arms. Just like this sweet little one found rest in mine on Sunday. We can relax our bodies, our striving, our worry and our minds and just rest in Him and in His presence.

Imagine the joy is brings Him when we do. It is the sweetest thing.