Vacation

 Rest is something that is hard to truly find this side of eternity.  I just got back from a week and a half vacation.  But I did not get back from a week and a half of rest.  Even vacation is work.  You have to pack the right stuff, remember the right stuff, move the right stuff in and out of the car into and out of the places you will be staying, you have to work hard to organize all of the details to make sure you have a place to stay.  Sure it is less work than working (or maybe different work than working) but when you get back all of your work is still there.  

Even resting can be exhausting at times.

Which is why I am so thankful that God promises us rest.  Not temporary rest.  Not slightly better rest.  But rest.  Where we will no longer have to put out energy to make our lives liveable.  A rest that allows us to spend our time and energy where it ought to be - in worship, adoration and praise of the God who made us.  I do not think this means an absence of work - but an absence of difficult, unrewarding, unfulfilling work.  The work that we do will be accomplishing the purpose for which work was designed - to image God properly.  And that work will be work we need no rest from!

May God haste the day when we can rest, truly rest, in Him.

Summer

 Summer is almost officially here.  I am not talking about the actual start of the summer season on June 21.  I am not talking about the first warm day of the year.  I am talking about the absence of school for all of the kids!  I remember that when I was in their shoes, the beginning of summer was always marked by the end of the school work.  Summer really started when the school work was done.  

I think that in many respects, this is a good way to think about the return of Christ.  When Jesus comes back, the work that He has left us here to do for His glory is over and we get to enter the rest and eternal joy of being in His presence for all eternity.  I wonder if we think of His return like that.  Do we anticipate it like we looked forward to end of school?  Do we relish the thoughts of the endless possibilities of joy as we serve our Savior for all eternity?  Do we anticipate and hold fast the reality that we will spend an eternity worshiping God and living in His presence?  Perhaps we ought to think about the return of Christ a bit more like summer!