Most of us are very familiar with places in our local area – home, shops, nearby towns, day-trips to big cities, or places of sport, entertainment and social meetings. So it's not surprising that for away-days, weekends or holidays we often explore new places. At these times, people are always 'coming and going', and more so every year. Increased travel and busy-ness are features of the days in which we live – as is a dramatic growth in knowledge (including tech-knowlege-y!), as Daniel foretold 2500 years ago (Dan 12:4). Knowledge doubles now every 5 months!!

But there are places nearer home, though we may not be so familiar with them, places of beauty, quiet and restoration, offering a peace in the midst our busy lifestyles that popular resorts do not provide. Our God, who knows and provides what we need, gave us a Sabbath day each week to step aside and rest (with Him), though few non-Jewish people take advantage of this precious gift. We too need this Shabbat in our lives.

Have you found a regular place of rest in your busy life? Even businesses are realising the benefits of an area apart from 'the factory' where employees can enjoy a quiet lunch among the flowers, with a little pond, greenery and birds and buzzing insects going about their creative jobs.

Step aside to find rest and peace, with Him

This is part of a little poem which invites us to step aside and savour this gift:

There is a garden that I know, wherein such rest and peace exist,

And in my busy life it calls and bids me, Turn aside.

Such gentle invitation, easy to ignore, it promises that which I crave

But must create - the space and time to enter, just to Step aside.

The entrance to this haven is well hid; no bright lights advertise its whereabouts,

Yet beauties of a different kind along our path, encourage us to Turn aside.

The sunshine on a summer's day, dappled, through green leafy boughs,

Reveals a mystic beauty in her sylvan glade - I must just look and Step aside.

Jesus also recognised this need. Not just Shabbat-observant, He called His disciples to respond to this 'invitation' to ‘Turn aside’, especially when exhausted from a very busy schedule, when they had had no time even to eat. As in our day, many people were 'coming and going'.

He said to them, “Come with Me privately to a desert place and rest awhile” (Mark 6:31). When we choose to ‘Step aside’, it is to a place of His invitation, a place of meaning, of belonging, of safety and of peace. It is a place of meeting with Him, learning dependence upon Him, and so receiving rest and restoration - even in the desert.

An invitation to meet with Him

Ancient Israel was given the Tabernacle in the desert as an ohel mo'ed - a place of meeting, a place to learn to trust Him more. For us, whatever the struggle, whatever the storm, we have this invitation, to turn aside to this 'Place to be', with Him, to talk with Him and be restored.

And remember, Jesus said (for those who are His), “There are many places in My Father's house, and I am going there to prepare a place for you” (John 14:2). He spoke the truth, for He will bring us home finally to that eternal life in Him. That, beloved, is a promise we can trust, for He is Truth. Let us seek in Him that place to be.

Author: Greg Stevenson