The work on a farm never ceases. On the long days, or days when things break and it’s especially tough, my wife looks at me and says, “We’re growing our own food…it isn’t easy.” How true.
We’ve made a commitment only to eat the meat that we raise on our land. And with that comes work.
I often think of our honey bees. They fly straight out of their hive with a passion - they literally “bee line” it out of there. They‘re on a quest to pollinate, to build their hive, and fill it with honey. They return, coming into the hive from the side and float until they can land- giving precedence to the bees flying out.
The average honey bee only lives twenty days. Do they know they only have that long? Is that what fuels their drive to work as quickly as they can? And yet, they don’t enjoy the food they store. They store it for the winter, generations after they are already passed.
Some days I feel like all we do is work for our food, shelter and perishables.
Like the bees, we approach the day for work early and we work hard. My day job starts at 7am, and runs 10+ hours. Carrie and the kids take the chores of checking and feeding through the day and I take the evening chores. We hit the pillow exhausted but thankful. On Sunday it’s all out work- fixing, cleaning, building, mowing, cutting, whatever the season allows… There is definitely an intrinsic reward to work (more on next post), but it is still work. I wonder what tending the garden of Eden looked like before the fall- before the thorns and thistles. It must have been rewarding. Here and now, there are definitely thorns and thistles.
It’s easy to feel like the bees, always running from wake until death.
Thankfully that isn’t how God intended us to live. We aren’t created to work 24/7. I often wonder if creating us with the necessity of sleep is intentional to keep us humble. Sleep is a daily reminder that we are weak, we are vulnerable. We have to stop or we die. While we sleep, our body mind and is restored. In that moment of sleep we can do nothing.
The same is true for Sabbath. Six days we work, the seventh is a rest. Sometimes we have to consciously give our work to God, asking him to remove the burden of even thinking about it on Sabbath. But, it’s become a pattern of life for us, and it’s absolutely amazing. Taking this day of complete rest actually makes us more productive the remaining days. It’s a time to recharge with loved ones, to learn from God’s word, and allow Him to speak to us. It gives us something to look forward to.
For us, we open Sabbath Friday evening together with a candlelight meal and blessings. Sabbath morning normally includes a family board game (currently Everdell and Wingspan are our favorites), and then we meet with our fellowship in the afternoon for Scripture and a closing meal. It’s fantastic.
Working as as hard as we can includes taking a day of rest. I can’t imagine any other way.
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