Listen

The heavens and the earth and all who live in them were completed. On the sixth day God completed all the work that he had done, and on the seventh day God rested from all the work that he had done.

Genesis 2:1-2

Think

Heavens and earth. Evening and morning. Water, sky, seas, and land. Plants, animals, and humankind. The creation story may seem to be about opposites, but the elements of creation are not one without the other. God deems them good in their togetherness. God’s six days of creation pair with a seventh day of rest; this pairing is indeed good too.

Humankind has just been created in God’s image. Then the scripture tells us something of God: God rests. God’s rest on the seventh day, because it is paired with God’s creative works, is good. In God’s creativity, we’ve been made to bear God’s image. That we need rest is no sign of weakness, nor is it a distinction of our humanness. Rest is a mark of the likeness of God within us.

Work undertaken to be God’s love and hands in this world is inseparable from rest. Just as the work is good, the rest God bestows bears that same goodness.

Jenny Oliver Hinderer

Question to Ponder:

What do you think God’s rest was like on the seventh day: a long nap, a walk and stretch, meditation, something else entirely?

Pray

Creator God, after six days of forming the world, you also created rest. Settle me into the goodness of the rest you’ve created, that I might arise to a greater awareness of you and the endeavors I pursue in your name. Amen.

Go

As the hours of the coming day pass, calm presence and bustling activity will ebb and flow.

God is near. God renews. Moment by moment. Each moment for the next moment.