Time--God's Great Gift
Monday, July 17, 2023
For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. Ex. 20:11, NKJV.
Knowing that His human children would need time to refresh mind and body after a week of work, at the end of Creation week God prescribed the Sabbath. His prescription still works. Weekly He provides His children time to enjoy His companionship and handiwork.
Our family loves the outdoors, and on Sabbath we take time to bask in God's natural beauty.
Our Sabbath refreshment has included a summer of Sabbath mornings when we watched four baby foxes grow up in the field behind our house. Then one Sabbath afternoon we followed a mother deer and her speckled fawn as they strolled down Lehigh Street, the mother walking protectively between the cars and her baby. Another Sabbath at sunset we watched a beaver eating supper at Rocky Mountain National Park. And one Sabbath a herd of more than 100 elks milled around our jeep, eating and bugling, close enough that we watched without binoculars.
My very favorite Sabbath refreshment took place on the peaceful Moose River in Maine. We took our motored canoe out to a narrow passage and dropped anchor. Sudden movement to our right caught our attention. A family of beavers slid silently into the water and began nibbling twigs and leaves from overhanging branches. A mosquito landed on my nose, and I swatted. A slap of a beaver's tail sent the whole family under-water. We sat motionless, waiting. Then the beavers surfaced and continued with their meal.
Downriver two otters swam toward us, their humped backs rising and falling above the water as they played. As a climax, a deer with a large rack of antlers walked into the water and stood facing us, silhouetted in the sunset colors. Darkness would soon descend, and knowing we had to thread our way through some rocks on the way back to the dock, we reluctantly started the motor. The animals disappeared into the forest. No one can erase from our memories the refreshment that God's gift of time gave us.
And best of all, God's prescription for rest comes every week, not once a year like Christmas. What a wise God!
Take time on the Sabbath to refresh yourself with peaceful scenes of God's creation, and you too will be revitalized.
Knowing that His human children would need time to refresh mind and body after a week of work, at the end of Creation week God prescribed the Sabbath. His prescription still works. Weekly He provides His children time to enjoy His companionship and handiwork.
Our family loves the outdoors, and on Sabbath we take time to bask in God's natural beauty.
Our Sabbath refreshment has included a summer of Sabbath mornings when we watched four baby foxes grow up in the field behind our house. Then one Sabbath afternoon we followed a mother deer and her speckled fawn as they strolled down Lehigh Street, the mother walking protectively between the cars and her baby. Another Sabbath at sunset we watched a beaver eating supper at Rocky Mountain National Park. And one Sabbath a herd of more than 100 elks milled around our jeep, eating and bugling, close enough that we watched without binoculars.
My very favorite Sabbath refreshment took place on the peaceful Moose River in Maine. We took our motored canoe out to a narrow passage and dropped anchor. Sudden movement to our right caught our attention. A family of beavers slid silently into the water and began nibbling twigs and leaves from overhanging branches. A mosquito landed on my nose, and I swatted. A slap of a beaver's tail sent the whole family under-water. We sat motionless, waiting. Then the beavers surfaced and continued with their meal.
Downriver two otters swam toward us, their humped backs rising and falling above the water as they played. As a climax, a deer with a large rack of antlers walked into the water and stood facing us, silhouetted in the sunset colors. Darkness would soon descend, and knowing we had to thread our way through some rocks on the way back to the dock, we reluctantly started the motor. The animals disappeared into the forest. No one can erase from our memories the refreshment that God's gift of time gave us.
And best of all, God's prescription for rest comes every week, not once a year like Christmas. What a wise God!
Take time on the Sabbath to refresh yourself with peaceful scenes of God's creation, and you too will be revitalized.
Used by permission of Health Ministries, North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists.
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