The Sabbath arrives on Friday as the sunsets whether I am ready for it or not. The house might be a mess the kids might be cranky. I may or may not have had a recent shopping trip. One of the family might be sick but the Sabbath arrives regardless. It’s supposed to be a time of rest and relaxation to spend with Jesus, enjoy family time and celebrate creation, but when I don’t have everything ready and it arrives, I sometimes feel like a failure and find it hard to relax thinking of all the things I should have done and how sometime in the near future I will have everything perfectly prepared and will then have the perfect Sabbath.
But maybe that’s why God made the Sabbath, so all the Martha’s of the world could learn to sit at his feet and rest like Mary, not neglecting the eternal things which are most important for the temporary things that absorb us so much throughout the week. God knows that if He had to wait for us to make everything perfect and get everything done it would never happen. So He created and commanded a 24 hour time for us to disconnect from the cares of this world and to reconnect with Him remembering that He is the one who made us and He is the one who makes us holy and not we ourselves (Psalm 100:3, Ezekiel 20:12, Exodus 31:13).
So it doesn’t matter if the house is a mess or I didn’t get to prepare quite as much as I liked. It’s not about me, it’s about entering His rest (Hebrews 4:1-11). It’s high time I viewed the Sabbath as God rescuing me from my endless to-do list instead of viewing it as a reminder of how far away I am from being perfect.