I’m sure I’ve told this story before – but indulge me once again. Every time Labor Day circles around I remember the year my mother was pregnant with my younger brother David. She was due in June, but we kids (there were four of us at this point) were convinced that it would be really, really, really cool if she birthed him on labor day. She did not. He was born in June.
I’m sure many of us are looking forward to this coming Labor Day as an opportunity to get some extra labor done. Probably not birthing a child, but there is always the garage to clean up (seriously, how does it always get so messy?), weeding to be done, bills to be paid, etc.
Western Protestants are really good at filling our days with labor – we see labor as a virtue, as an outcome of well ordered faith. We are excellent at filling our days with all things work and talking ourselves out of rest (hand raised over here!).
Matthew 6:25-33 reminds us that despite all of our laborious attempts to keep our lives in order, what we need comes not from our labors but from God. Jesus reminds us that we must only look at the flowers of the field, which are clothed in glory they did not labor for, to be reminded of God’s great provisions.
So, this Labor Day, may you find reminders of God’s provision and may you rest in trust that even if you cease your labors for the day, God’s faithfulness remains.
Blessings,
Pastor Amy
PS – Wendell Berry (writer, farmer, prophet, and poet) passed away this week. He had a profound impact on me during my PhD years, and is partially responsible for my front-yard garden.
The Peace of Wild Things ~ Wendell Berry
When despair grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting for their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
