Rest

When she was moving, I took Sarah to the storage facility to get some of her stuff to take with her to South Carolina. While we were collecting her things, I uttered, “Lord can I go to bed early tonight, please?” I didn’t realize I said this out loud and I would have not even noticed it except that Sarah heard it and thought it was very funny. When we got back to the house she told the rest of my family and in the weeks that followed, I kept hearing, “Lord, puhleeze can I go to bed early?” in very mocking voices.

The prayer I spoke that day was not an uncommon prayer. It is a perpetual prayer in my life. My dream is rolling into bed at nine every night, but I was just not aware that I was praying it until it was brought to my attention.

All of us have different visions of Heaven. For me, I envision Heaven as a place of rest—no, not with a giant Serta mattress as the commercials suggests. Neither do I think of myself in Heaven reclining in a beach chair with sunglasses and a glass of lemonade in hand.

When I think of resting in Heaven, I think of a place where there is no more wrestling. No more pursuing. Nor more achieving. No more anxieties. I imagine Heaven as finding refuge, comfort, and rest. Not in a place, but in the arms of the One who has nail scarred hands. The One who says, “Come to Me . . . and I will give you rest . . .” (Matthew 11:28-30). Safe in the arms of Jesus, this is our final resting place