June 25, 2021

By the seventh day God finished what God had been doing and stopped working. God blessed the seventh day and set it apart as a special day, because by that day God had completed God’s creation and stopped working.

I am off for a week of vacation and much needed rest and renewal. I am very good at encouraging other people to take time off, to take vacations, to rest, and to have a Sabbath. It’s good Biblical advice. It’s often more challenging to follow my own best advice.

Rod and I are headed to the “shore” as we called it back when we lived in Pennsylvania. Everyone in Pa knew that meant a trip to the Atlantic Ocean. But it was a bit of a misnomer. Living near Harrisburg, PA we also referred to the communities that lined the two sides of the Susquehanna River as the West Shore and the East Shore of the Susquehanna River.  Rivers have shores but they sure aren’t the ocean.

In Hawaii we’d say we were going to the beach. When you live on an island, you are, after all, surrounded by beaches. But beach isn’t exactly the right term either because rivers and lakes have beaches. Last year we spent a week on a lake. We have a lovely time, and there were small “beaches” around the lake – but not THE beach. And apparently at least in Washington State, when you go to the shore you are really going to the coast.

It has been a very long 16 months since March 2020, and a very intense and busy few months recovering from hip surgery and hopping right into in-person worship and resumed in-person activities. I think we all hope that this season is the beginning of the end of the COVID19 Pandemic.

I am challenged and comforted by Genesis story of the 7^th day of creation.  God finished what God was creating and stopped working. If you look at the Bible verse at the top, the words, “stopped working” are repeated twice to get our attention.

 I hope to soak up some sun, spend time in the ocean, catch the sun rising and falling, play games and enjoy laughs with family, walk on the beach, and eat hard shell crabs. I will savor the moments and save up memories to write more meditations when I get back.

Take some time to rest! ~ Anne