Sometimes I take rest for granted. Or I just figure I don’t have time to truly relax. Even in my lazier moments, I’m always thinking about a project or researching it through my reading or praying for the needs of those I love. But sometimes we need to set even our most pressing concerns aside and follow the Psalmist’s admonition to “Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10) With summer heat upon us in these last few days of spring, I’ve been taking advantage of nature. To lie on my back on the grass and look up at the beauty of a clear blue sky and trees that I used to watch when I floated in our pool (which we got rid of several years ago); to listen to the differing songs and tweets of birds, the scolding chirps of squirrels; to watch bunnies hop across the grass or go barefoot in the garden, to give the thirsty plants life-giving water – I find God’s profound beauty in such things.
Tonight the sky carried streaks of pink as the sun made its path to the west, and the breeze touched the hairs on my skin. Even in the suburbs with too much cement and brick houses all around, there is beauty in the trees and flowers and bushes aligning every home. Our roses are blooming wildly right now, as if they are in a hurry to spill a riot of color along the side of the house before summer officially starts.
I love listening to the way nature worships their Creator as I ride my bike through the park or sit on the porch at sunset. If you tune out the man-made noises of cars, and when lawnmowers and power tools fall silent, nature comes out to play. Don’t you love the way animals play as they work? The squirrels busily seek food and build their nest high in our tree, but they find time every day to chase each other and romp about as though they haven’t a care in the world. But then perhaps they don’t. Their heavenly Father feeds them.
And to think He cares even more for us.
So while I know I still have plenty of work to keep me tied to the computer or working around the house or any number of other things on my to-do list, I need not fret in the doing. It is okay to stop and enjoy the beauty God has placed all around us. It is okay to stop and worship to praise music as I take a walk along a lake’s shore or dip my toes in the ocean. It is okay to take a day of rest to let my mind and heart be renewed, to spend time being still.
Sometimes that rest might be spent reading, and sometimes I find time in His Word is its own refreshing rest. But it is also built into the fabric of our need, placed their by a loving Creator to be still, to rest, to know Him. Sometimes I need that reminder.
Selah~
