Sabbath KeepingSample

The Truth of Sabbath 

Observing a sabbath enables us to encounter a significant yet paradoxical truth about God. C. S. Lewis expresses this paradox in his space novel Perelandra, where one of the angels says that we humans are both infinitely necessary and infinitely superfluous in God’s eyes.

The first half of this paradox affirms that God wants us to serve as his hands and feet, stewarding the creation and making his love known in a world that needs it desperately. We who love God are indispensable; God depends on us to bring order to the world and reveal Christ’s love. During the six days of the workweek, he asks us to faithfully fulfill this calling with hard work and perseverance.

The other half of the paradox affirms that even though our work is valuable and necessary, even though God has created us to be his partners in sustaining the universe, he is fully capable of bringing about his purposes without us. We are creatures, completely dependent on the One who created us and sustains us. God alone is in control, and God alone upholds the universe. God’s love alone preserves us and empowers us. We rest in that love, in that reality, on the day that we stop.

The rhythm of six days of work and one day of rest enables us to experience profound truths about God and about ourselves—our necessity and our insignificance.

Adapted from Sabbath Keeping: Finding Freedom in the Rhythms of Rest. Copyright ©2005 by Lynne M. Baab. Used by permission. For more information, please visit https://www.ivpress.com/sabbath-keeping.