Now I'm Resting, Sweetly Resting

Today's postcard. A couple of weeks ago I stumbled on a great sale on Shiva paintsticks - $5 for the six-pack and $2 for the 3-pack of minis. I already had one pack, and now I have many colors. Only thing is, I don't exactly know what to do with these riches. Luckily, the book Paintsticks on Fabric was on sale, too, so I'll be trying out a few things.

This summer at church we've been reflecting on the topics of Eat Work Play Pray Rest, inspired, no doubt, by the book with similar wording in the title. The last two weeks the topic was the last one, Rest.

I grew up in the Mennonite Church, but this is the first time in many years that I've lived close to a Mennonite congregation. Some things are much the same; others, like the music, are a little different. The old hymn book is nowhere to be found, and while some of the hymns are familiar, most are not. One of the hymns on Sunday was "There Is a Place of Quiet Rest" and I recognized that one.

An unfamiliar one, although old, had the words, "Now I'm resting, sweetly resting, In the cleft once made for me." I woke up this morning with those words and tune in my head, where they resided for an hour or so. And that got me to thinking about how much I rest, or don't rest.

Not having small children, I do get uninterrupted sleep. But rest during waking hours is hard to come by. Outside of work time, there is so much I want to do, try, see, quilt. Maybe quilting time is resting time, I'm not sure.

Something to ponder - what constitutes rest? Is it simply the absence of structured work, whatever that is? I don't think so. Is it a time of being entertained by tv, a book, a baseball game? There's got to be more to it than that. It has to be more than doing what you love, because some people truly love their work.

The concept in the hymn that catches my attention is in the word "sweetly." Now I'm resting, sweetly resting. It sounds so attractive, sweetly resting does. Almost childlike. It makes me smile.