RestSample

Inspiration And Wonder

This is probably one of the best-known verses on rest in the Bible. Countless people refer to it when they say, ‘If God needed rest, then you do too!’ Verse three says that God rested ‘from all the work of creating He had done.' The previous verse makes it sound like He got done creating the universe in good time: by the seventh day He’d wrapped up. Maybe it could’ve taken more, but He was all finished and celebrated with a day of rest.

What does ‘rest’ look like for God though? It says He rested from His work of creating, so what’s the other work God does? I suggest, on that seventh day, God did what fueled His creativity. That ‘rest’ in God’s eyes meant cultivating inspiration and wonder and drawing on His own endless innovative imagination.

As the ultimate source of all these things, maybe when God rested He simply took in His creation. He walked the Garden of Eden He’d prepared and observed Adam and Eve as they enjoyed it. Maybe He spoke with them about how best to tend to it and where His favorite places were.

We all in some way create with God. Whatever our job, family life or social status look like, we were designed by God to creatively cultivate and steward our environments. So, when God instructs us to rest, maybe it’s not so much about napping and doing nothing, but actively doing what fuels that creativity.

Written by LAURA BENNETT