Friday was absolute mayhem around here.
I mean, complete and utter chaos. Nothing bad happened at all. Only good things – just tons of them all occurring at the same time. I hadn’t planned it that way. In my mind (and on the Notes App on my Iphone) everything had been planned in perfectly timed intervals that would allow for a smooth 24 hours. But nothing actually panned out that way.
I mean, does it ever?
For example, the delivery guy from the furniture store arrived to put together my sons’ new bunk bed at the exact same time the handy man showed up to tinker with their broken go-cart. We are also in the middle of turning a clothes-hanging closet into a space suitable for holding books and school supplies. So, the contractor arrived (with two other contractors he’d not mentioned over the phone) just as it was time for me to start making dinner. When I opened the door to greet them, they nodded and smiled as if everything were normal . . . even though they was supposed to show up before lunch time.
To top it all off, the wonderful people from Focus on the Family were in our office for a Bible study taping with my family – parents and siblings. So, we did our best to host them while our tiny office space got turned upside down with cameras and lights and microphones and cords.
Fun.
Busy.
Exhausting.
By the end of the day, Jerry and I were winded like we’d just run the Boston marathon and were totally ready to plop down into the bed . . . just when we remembered that we’d scheduled a dinner with friends. Man, we hated to cancel. It’d been on the calendar for two months and deep down inside we knew that once we got there we’d be refreshed. So, we showered, tried to look presentable and drove off to meet them. So glad we did.
Whew. . .what a long day.
Which is why the irony of what my kids had been doing throughout the midst of that jammed packed day struck me so poignantly.
A friend of mine has been helping them to understand some of the details about the Jewish Sabbath recently. Just for informative fun. Over the past few days, they’d talked about it a little bit and even read up on a few details. So to culminate the experience they thought it’d be fun to actually have a traditional Sabbath meal. And they scheduled it. . .for Friday.
I joined them for a while as they drew a candlestick, goblet and other traditional elements onto a make-shift table cloth in an attempt to make it resemble the real deal . . (since I had no intention of buying a real silver goblet no matter how hard they tried to convince me that we’d use it on a regular basis).
I loved watching their excitement as they followed the recipe for the traditional Sabbath bread.
They watched and waited for it to rise all day and then popped it in the oven for baking.
As soon as it was cooked and ready, the table was set. Cups were filled with grape juice, candles were lit and then we listened to the reading of the traditional Jewish sayings. We tried our best to follow the directions – even down to my husband starting off with a prayer for his family like a Jewish father might at the beginning of the meal. We talked about how the Sabbath was a day of rest and refreshing and a time when the family is meant to enjoy God and each other.
We took communion together and then laughed hysterically when it was time to sing a hymn and my youngest son belted out a rendition of “The Wheels on the Bus go Round and Round”.
Hear me clearly – there was nothing calm or calming about our Sabbath meal but at least the kids got to experience it. . .
. . .kind of.
In the midst of all the mayhem of this particular day – on a day when so much business abounded – it was just like God to remind me through my children about the importance of Sabbath – rest, refreshing, recuperation.
Prioritizing it.
Enjoying It.
Planning For It.
You have any “sabbath” moments planned this week?
