If you are anything like me, perhaps you've found yourself searching and longing for rest. Covid ended and we swore we weren't going to get back on that rat-wheel of a schedule. But here we are. You are hungry for a deep rest. Me too. The rest we are seeking, the rest we are told we need, the rest we feel we have earned, is not actually satisfying this deep craving for freedom that we are hungering for. Your weariness is bone-deep. It's soul level.
We need rest; we were made for it. We are longing for it. We are people of limitations. Our limitations are reminders that we are mortal. These reminders, whether we acknowledge it or not, are helpful. The rest we need, the rest we are longing for, it cannot be found in a long bubble bath, a visit to a fancy spa, or sitting fireside with a cozy blanket and good book uninterrupted. Each of these sound delightful, but if you are like me, this Christmas season I know they aren't going to do me much lasting good. I seek them, I get them, and I am left tired...still. I need more. You do too. Commercials and advertisements will tell us otherwise, but they lie. We know because we have sought these "restorative outlets" time and time again and come up tired over and over.
I am currently reading Tim Keller's Hidden Christmas. I recommend it. It's 8 chapters in total and not too late to enjoy before December 25th arrives. Here's what he has to share about rest...
Finally, we learn from the genealogies that Jesus is the ultimate rest. At the end of the geneology, Matthew makes much of the numbers of the generations. In Matthew 1:17 he says that there were fourteen generations from David to the exile in Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to Christ. So there have been "six sevens" of generations, and that makes Jesus the beginning of the seventh seven.
What is that about? In the Bible the number seven is highly significant because, as Genesis tells us, God rested from his created work on the seventh day. The Sabbath day - one day in seven - is the day of rest. However, the Sabbath seven symbolism goes further. In the Mosaic law, every seven years the farmer was to let the land lie fallow to give it a chance to replenish its nutrients, and so the seventh year represented rest. Finally, we are told in Leviticus 25 that the last year of the seventh period of seven years, the forty-ninth year, was to be a jubilee. In that year all the slaves were to be freed and all debts were to be forgiven; all the land and all the people were to have rest from their weariness and from their burdens. The seventh seven, the Sabbath of Sabbaths, was a foretaste of the final rest that all will have when God renews the earth (Romans 8:18-23, Hebrews 4:1-11).
Matthew is telling us that this rest will come to us only through Jesus Christ. Do you understand that Jesus Christ was not born "once upon a time" but really broke into time and space, that he has accomplished your salvation so that prostitute and king sit down together at his table? If you believe that, even now you can begin to taste that rest. How does faith do that? One way is this: In Jesus you stop having to prove yourself because you know it doesn't really matter in the end whether you are a failure or a king. All you need is God's grace, and you can have it, in spite of your failures. After you know him, you want to live your life to please him; but you don't have to clean up your life in order to know him as Savior, and that brings rest inwardly.
We also need rest from the troubles and evils of this world. We feel like we have to control history, we have to make everything go right, but that is not only exhausting but impossible. Christmas tells us that despite appearances to the contrary, our good God is in control of history. And someday he will put everything right. Some of our inward rest comes when the Spirit reminds us of all this final salvation and ultimate rest. We have, then, a powerful hope in the future that is not mere optimism. It is a certainty that, at the end of all things, all will be well. This gives us peace and stregnth when dealing with the trials and tragedies of the present. Eventually, though, the glory of God will cover the world the way the waters cover the bottom of the sea. And then Jesus, the Jubilee King, will give us the final, perfect rest of love and joy.
Christmas is not "Once upon a time a story happened that shows us how we should live better lives." No! He broke into the world to save us. Christ the Savior is born!
-Tim Keller, Hidden Christmas, p.38-39
In Christ, you don't have to prove yourself because you know it really doesn't matter in the end whether you are a failure or a king. You don't have to prove yourself! Your worth is based on Scripture, not your bank account, job title, child's reputation, shoe brand, or social circle. We are running ourselves ragged, and why? You are a well-meaning mom or friend and you aren't sure how to say "no" especially this time of the year. If we can realize the implications of our security in Christ, we will experience true rest. Jesus Christ elimintates your temptation to compare yourself with the person beside you. Jesus elimintaes your temptation to try and "keep up with the Jones".
Jesus frees you to just be and that is enough. Breathe that truth in. You are a human being, not a human doing.
This Christmas season, "Just be." Can we do it? It may require us to say "no" to something so that we can sit at Jesus' feet, meditate and open our souls, with intention before his Word, that they can be restored by The Word made flesh.
We can buy the presents, decorate, serve but deny the tempation you feel to prove yourself. You don't have to meet other people's expectations. You don't have to perform because in Christ all expectations have been met...in abundance. He came and in so doing, he freed you. What better time to meditate on that than at Christmas? Oh, how Satan would love to keep us hustling busy and distracted by other's social media accounts bosting the picture-perfect holiday squares on our screens. We can choose a different way.
And, if your heart is broken this Christmas season and you slap on some fresh lip gloss and a smile as your scurry out the door to the next event, perhaps this post will encourage you to pause and remember this...as mentioned above, you have a certainty that in the end, all things will be well. A certainty! If you are sick with cancer or Crohn's or an orphan or walking through financtial disaster or not on speaking terms with a family member or suffering from PTSD or a recovering alcoholic or mute or deaf or blind...you fill in the blank - in the end you can be certain that all things will be made right! Rest. That is the soul-level comfort that brings rest. We don't have to fix this world. We can't. But we know Immanual, who will. We know the end.
Let me share a story with you that I experienced 2 days ago. As you may know from my last blog post and Instagram, I am currently in the bush of Zambia. I have seen some horrific situations since being here. As one might imagine, being at an orphanage that is located in the bush, the children here come from devastating poverty and a variety of different heart-wrenching circumstances. Saturday was "family visitation day" at the orphanage. One boy (I won't share his name out of respect) arrived here 7 days ago. His mother is blind with cleft palate. Because of her disability, she is frequently taken advantage of by men in her village. As a result, she has four children. Survival in the bush is difficult enough, add a handicap to the situation, such as blindness, and survial is the daily goal. This dear woman has 3 sons and a new-born baby girl. She walked over 10 miles to come visit two of her sons who live at Agape. She had no shoes on. There was an odor. Trauma plagued the face of her eldest son. It was heart-wrenching to see this family. My only comfort as I stood nearby to the side, secretly wiping tears, was found in the fact that, as Tim Keller mentioned, eventually the glory of God will cover the world as the waters do the sea. He will right every wrong and he will heal every handicap. He will. He will.
May we rest this Christmas season - in the tragedies we observe or experience, in the hustle of daily life and all of it's responsibilities, may we find rest in Christ. Our Savior came. He freed us from our striving. He secured us in our identity in him. He loves us and we can lean into his arms this Christmas season and "just be." Thank you, Lord.
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