After God created for six days, God rested. God rested and called it holy. “Thus, the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. And on the seventh day God finished the work that God had done, and God rested on the seventh day from all the work that God had done” (Genesis 2:1-2).
Yet before God rested, God reflected on a wondrous creation. “God saw everything that God had made, and indeed, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31a). God created. God reflected. God rested.
Rest is a holy endeavor for me because it is then that I stop to recognize what I have done. I sit back and consider what I have made. We are part of God’s creation, but we are also tasked with creating.
As Adam and Eve were put in the garden to tend it, we inherit the responsibility to take care of the world around us. Yet alongside that responsibility is the tradition of a holy day of rest. I am learning to sit back and admire the creation I am tending around me.
This message is excerpted from “Running from rest” by Elyssa Salinas Lazarski in the July 2019 Café online magazine. Today is the Second Sunday after Pentecost.
Copyright © 2024 Women of the ELCA. Inquiries for permission to reproduce should be directed to [email protected].