1 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them,
were finished. 2 And on the seventh day God ended His work
which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He
had done.
3 Then God blessed the seventh day and
sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created
and made. (Genesis 2: 1-3)
Friday, at 5 P.M., I posted a grant application,
acknowledged a confirmation text, and closed my laptop. The rest of my weekend was dedicated to
moving my daughter into her dorm room to begin her first year as a college
student. You could say that “I ended the work which I had done, and rested from
my work which I had done.”
As I write this post it’s Sunday evening and my daughter’s all
moved in. Monday, bright and early, I’ll
be back in the office doing the same work which I’d ceased from doing for the
weekend. I mean, just because I stopped
working for the weekend doesn’t mean I quit my job.
In the 6 days of Genesis chapter 1, God showed Moses how He
had created the heavens, the earth, and the earliest forms of terrestrial life.
Then for a single one-day weekend God rested.
No new building projects for 24 hours.
But, God taking a weekend off doesn’t mean He quit creating.
Since that first weekend, God has made the trees at the edge of my yard, the clouds in the sky
today, the earthworms burrowing under the foundation of wherever your wifi
hotspot is connected, you, me, and all
the species of plant, animal, and microbe that did not exist when the first
human beings walked around naked, munching on nuts, and berries, and “every
green herb for food” (Genesis 1:30). Bright
and early everyday God is busy in the Creating business.
With so much work yet to do, why did God take a day
off? Same reason the owner or CEO at our
jobs takes a day off: He wanted to.
God wasn’t physically exhausted.
“ Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord,the Creator of
the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary.” (Isaiah 40:28a)
He wasn’t out of ideas.
“His understanding is
unsearchable.”
And, God didn’t rest on the 7th day because day
#7 was holy. He set apart the 7th
day because that happened to be the day He’d rested. Wine and bread aren’t objectively holier than
any other drink-carbohydrate combination.
When wine and bread are consecrated, they become holy communion. When the end of the week was sanctified, it
became the Sabbath. The Sabbath is holy, but the number 7 isn’t special.
No. No, it isn’t.
God simply chose to spend a day experiencing and enjoying
His creative work cause He felt like it, and it’s O.K., for God to rejoice and
enjoy Himself, too. (Zephaniah 3:17)
And, though He didn’t say so, God clearly thought the way He
spent the day was good because “God
blessed the seventh day and sanctified it.”
The benefits of a weekly day of rest are so good, so very
good for us that the Lord made it mandatory.
As Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the
Sabbath” (Mark 2:27).
So, the day after God invented humanity,
God invented the Sabbath for the benefit of humanity.
Even on His day off, God was taking
care of us.
Take a day this week, and every week to think about
that.
Do what God did. Take
a break from pursuing wealth, influence, attention, or whatever it is we spend the
rest of the week doing to rest and reflect on how good, how very good God is.
---Anderson T. Graves II is a writer,
community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural
leadership development.
Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in
Fairfield, Alabama; executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking
Organization (SAYNO); and
director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human
Development (NIHD).
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
You can help support Rev. Graves’ work by visiting his personal blog and
clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.
Support by check or money order may be mailed to
Miles Chapel CME Church
P O Box 132
Fairfield, Al 35064
