The Time of Rest

​For a few years, I’ve felt the keenness of drinking from a firehose, as that saying goes. Now, as I write this from the laundromat during our long-awaited vacation/delayed honeymoon, rest is finally here. Even though my light-packing insistence brings me to spending quarters and time here with the locals washing clothes, it is a low-energy, slow-paced activity.

We are staying at the end of the spit in Homer, Alaska 

Deborah Rambo Sinn

this week in a room with a picture window to Kachemak Bay where we’ve spotted dozens of otters, harbor seals, bald eagles (one tore a gull to shreds right in front of us), orcas, and a multitude of other critters. We smartly brought two pairs of binoculars! 

Seeing the sea life going about the business of finding food, swimming against the strong tides, and popping up here and there to catch a breath, I keep remembering the scripture below from a few sermons back -- remember the lilies … (ok, so I AM washing clothes right now and the irony is not lost on me.) The animals we see do not have a chance to be idle, and the contrast between our restful binocular watching and their constant motion hasn’t been lost on me, even if the comparison doesn’t mean a whole lot. I just find it interesting how we are often in full-schedule, high-stress mode or we rest — we spin in varying tempos — while most of creation finds itself in a different, more predictable rhythm.

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“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you — you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:28-33 NIV).

​In His Name, Deborah