Rest as Preparation

Rest as Preparation Let’s go back to the work of creation. God spent days forming and fine-tuning our universe so he could look at his work and say, “Very good.” From the terrains to the depths to the skies, and all the life that inhabits them, God worked to create our universe and our world. At the very end of his creative endeavor, he created humans. We were the final creative effort on day six. Gen. 1:31 tells us, just before “there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day,” God placed humanity in his creation. Humans were the last of his work before resting. The next day, the seventh day, was rest day. Humanity began life with rest. Before there was work, before there was planting and harvesting, before there was naming, there was resting. Before there was ruling, filling, and subduing, there was resting. God’s very first gift to humanity was a day of rest. This makes rest something more than just recuperation. Rest is preparation, a time of ensuring we’re ready, body, mind, and spirit, for the tasks to come. As dawn broke on the first full day of human existence, Adam and Eve joined God in celebrating the goodness of everything he created. For God, it was the rest of completion. For the humans, it was a rest of anticipation and preparation.  Their new muscles would’ve stretched and become accustomed to walking the ground as they perhaps took time to walk through their garden home. Their lungs breathing in the oxygen, their skin absorbing the sunshine, their eyes and ears nearly on sensory overload at the sheer volume of sights and sounds. And as evening drew on and darkness began to settle, their first restful sleep. Their bodies replenishing and rejuvenating in their still and quiet slumber. They were ready to wake to a new day that held work with no toil, sweat with deep satisfaction, and exertion with gratification. Yet, perhaps the greatest preparation on that first day of rest was to humanity’s new spirit. Waking that first morning, God’s image-bearers would’ve been confronted with the presence and provision of God. They would’ve learned of God’s goodness as they took in creation and all that God had done. It’s difficult to imagine a greater filling for our spirits than connecting with the one who breathed life into us. This experience of God, learning of and from him, was the ultimate preparation for the next day, when the new humans would embark on their journey of “filling, subduing, and ruling over.” Before Adam and Eve clocked in for their God-given work, they spent time with the one who gave them the work. We can do the same. Rest in and with God as we get to know him and anticipate the place and work he has given us to accomplish.