Tip of My Iceberg

There’s a lot of energy and joy in her tiny body. She’s barely five months old, and her name is June, but she’s already acquired many nicknames, names of endearment that make a person smile. Junie Bug, Junie B, JB. She’s happy no matter how you address her.

Her parents are deeply in love with their daughter. Her Nonna is enraptured with her. Her other grandparents find her irresistible.

She has that impact on people.

Junie doesn’t do anything to achieve such commitment from others. She’s yet to live what might be considered a productive life. Besides smiling and giggling, she eats, sleeps, and rids herself of bodily waste.

But her gift is in knowing when she needs rest. Junie can be up for a period of time, playing with her family, practicing new skills, such as rolling over and discovering her fingers. This takes a lot of her focus, her first efforts at work. When she tires, she goes to sleep. No one can keep her from her rest when she’s tired.

What Junie does naturally, when she knows she needs it, the rest of us aren’t as cognizant of our needs. If we are, we don’t tend to do much about it. We’ve become part of a culture that puts more emphasis on what and how much we produce than on our character. And to develop our character, we need time and space to rest our minds, bodies, and souls.

John Lubbock, an English banker, politician, and philanthropist of the nineteenth century, said, “Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.” He saw rest as a necessary pause in the busyness of the day, a chance to remember that we are more than what we do.

Most of what we really need isn’t provided through our ongoing efforts at work. Author and pastor Mark Buchanan said, “Most of the things we need to be most fully alive never come in busyness. They grow in rest.” Our greatest needs in life come when we’re still.

Jesus understood this as He watched the people around Him, overwhelmed in their fear of the Romans, their need to provide for their families, and their longing for what they hoped would be a mighty Messiah to free them from subjugation. Jesus knew their greater need was for forgiveness and rest for their souls. His offer appealed to this need. “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to Me. Get away with Me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with Me and work with Me–watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with Me, and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” Matthew 11:28-30.

Jesus was dealing with a society that was overwhelmed by Roman rule, under the legalism of Jewish Pharisaical laws, and generally a fairly poor community. He knew what people needed–rest from their worries and frustrations, an opportunity to refocus on Someone who saw them, valued them, and appreciated what they were going through.

Jesus understood our human need for rest.

Junie gravitates toward rest as part of her growth. A baby needs so much sleep; when lacking necessary slumber, children become ornery and cantankerous. Rest restores them.

As it should do for us.

In Jesus, it doesn’t matter what our circumstances are. He is our rest. The One who sees our needs and loves us through them.