entering rest

REST



 

 a hard word for me to grasp, accept, and embrace. something I need more often. WAY more often. yet, many times I feel guilty if I do rest. thankful for new friendships in my life right now, specifically a dear friend that gave me a gift in the form of a book I haven't been able to put down: The Rest of God by Mark Buchanan. I have read a book by him on seasons of our walk with the Lord and his writing is powerful, straightforward, and totally relative and applicable to life. One part of the book talking about rest made me want to go back and reread the chronicles of Narnia books. I told kennedy when he gets back, to add to our reading list of books we want to read together, these are some to be added to the list. other books on our list include: the phantom tollbooth and count of monte cristo. before he left, we had been reading pride and prejudice and the lord of the rings and trying to read the bible together at night. that is one thing I am looking forward to when he returns.

Anyway, here is the part from Prince Caspian that was in The Rest of God that I found so moving- Lucy is going out to find Aslan who is nowhere to be seen...and she longs to see him. A stirring wakes her up one night and this is amazing:

"A circle of grass, smooth as a lawn, met her eyes, with dark trees dancing all round it. And then- oh Joy! For HE was there: the huge Lion, shining white in the moonlight, with his huge black shadow underneath him. But for the movement of his tail he might have been a stone lion, but Lucy never thought of that. She never stopped to think whether he was a friendly lion or not. She rushed to him. She felt her heart would burst if she lost a moment. And the next thing she knew was that she was kissing him and putting her arms as far round his neck as she could and burying her face in the beautiful rich silkiness of his mane.

'Aslan, Aslan. Dear Aslan', sobbed Lucy. 'At last.' The great beast rolled over on his side so that Lucy fell, half sitting and half lying between his front paws. He bent forward and just touched her nose with his tongue. His warm breath came all round her. She gazed up into the large wise face. 'Welcome, child', he said.

 'Aslan', said Lucy, 'you're bigger'.

'That is because you are older, little one', answered he.

 'Not because you are?'

'I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger'.

 

This is what Buchanan says- "that's a perfect description of those who train themselves in God's goodness and sovereignty: every year you grow, you find him bigger".