Beach, books & axes

I returned home from a quick beach getaway over a month ago, but in typical fashion am just getting around to posting.

I boogie boarded the first day and thereafter decided my boogie boarding days may be behind me, suitable to a woman of more tender age than I.

I skipped school for several days to loll on the sand, and though we’ve hit the books hard since then, we’re still making up for it.

On Friday night the big kids left us to go do teenagery things, so the rest of us spent family fun night throwing axes.

Caleb turned out to be a natural, akin to the way he picked up a mini golf club and astonished us all.

 

For that is what the Sabbath is for

 “Didn’t you know there’s a second service in the afternoon?”

Kit was appalled.  “Do you mean we have to go?”

“Of course we go,” snapped Judith.  “That is what the Sabbath is for.”

~ Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

The surest sign of God’s transformative work in my life may be when I willingly change from pj’s back into real pants and go back to church on Sunday evenings for a prayer service, ordination service, or congregational meeting.

That I, the world champion of introversion and pajamas, would do such a thing is proof that there is a God who works in His people.  

I really like staying home with my feet up.  The Lord’s day, after all, is for resting from one’s six days of labor.

But the Lord’s day is also for communing with the Lord’s people.  Judith Wood’s snappish attitude notwithstanding, she’s right on that count.

Sunday is the Lord’s gift to us, for us to gather together, fan the flames of our faith, hear His word preached, sing songs to God and one another.  It is the day we are blessed by the corporate gathering.  

I see you, mom struggling to contain her toddler.  I see you, older saint I’ve watched turn gradually grayer for the last two decades, with undimmed sparkle as you sing God’s praise.  I see you, dear saint who once strayed so far away that you were put out of the fellowship, who has since returned, whose face glows with peace under the preached Word.  I see you, teenager, sitting humbly with your parents and helping afterwards with the younger kids.  I see you, covenant child, disciplining yourself to learn to pay attention to a sermon.  I see you, weary new parents, in and out with your infant, wondering when you’ll ever catch more than one uninterrupted minute of a church service again.  I see you, saints with canes and walkers and oxygen tanks and chemo baldness and all manner of suffering, coming to the gathering of God’s people, and I am blessed by all of you.  

You are the members of the Body I am bound to, and the Lord gifts us one day in seven to meet, worship, and strengthen one another.  I don’t want to miss it.

For that is what the Sabbath is for.