. . . for City of Rocks, my favorite State Park in southern New Mexico. Amidst the results of volcano activity that took place an unimaginable eternity ago, I seek the urgently needed rest that I have denied myself for months. At my favorite site that provides a magnificent view over the high desert and under a tree sheltered by the rocks, I feel close to Creation.
I have taken one of my favorite books with me, Sabbath, Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in our Busy Lives. The author, Wayne Muller, a chaplain and counselor, explores the spiritual dimension of rest, knowledgeably, wisely and poetically.
I am re-reading the inspiring chapter on the first account of Creation in which we encounter “Sabbath” for the first time.
We all know the first line of Genesis. “In the beginning, God created …”
Wayne Muller, however, reveals the following: Jewish scholars suggest the reading, “In a beginning,” as if there were endless beginnings in the cycle of life. Muller continues, “Biblical scholars also agree that the phrase ‘God created’ would be better translated ‘when God began to create.’ So the story literally begins, In a beginning when God began to create the heavens and the earth . . . “
I look up and watch a car slowly coming down the road looking for a place to stop between these ancient rocks. God is not done with Creation. How comforting! He did not place a check mark after “City of Rocks” for example and then went off for another galaxy.
Another thought comes to mind: And if we humans as partners in creation listen, we would, for example, develop — and buy — different, less polluting cars than the one that has just stopped at the rock formation next to me.
I turn to my book again. “On the seventh day, he rested from all his work.”
“But a closer reading of Genesis reveals that the Sabbath was not simply a day off. It says, ‘On the seventh day God finished God’s work.’"
How can this be? Wasn’t the seventh day when God, exhausted, took time off and rested, satisfied with the laborious work of creation?
The ancient rabbis teach that on the seventh day, "God created menuha — tranquility, serenity, peace, and repose — rest, in the deepest possible sense of fertile, healing stillness. Until the Sabbath, creation was unfinished.”
Just imagine! Your laundry is not done, your report is not done, your day’s work is not done until you have sat down and rested. Not because you need to “recharge your inner batteries” in order to be able to face another tough day tomorrow; but to befriend yourself with your work and to cultivate tranquility, the only way to hear God’s suggestions for the next day of eternal creation.
After quite some time of just looking and listening to the wind in the trees, I place my belongings back into the car. On my way back home, the last sentence of this chapter goes through my mind:
“Only in the soil of Sabbath tranquility we can seed the possibility of beginning a new day, a new week — even a new life — again and again...”
