Sanding Off Your Wedding Ring
“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work... For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
Exodus 20:8-11
In his excellent book, The Rest of God, Mark Buchanan tells the story of his wife’s grandmother who lived during the Canadian gold rush. These were the days when men and women would pan the rivers and bore into the hills in an attempt to strike it rich. “Gold fever” literally filled the air back then.
Buchanan describes how Grandma had a large boulder in her backyard. It was too big to move and, since it was embedded with glittery chunks of minerals, she decided to polish it up and make it the centerpiece for a garden area.
So she set at it, vigorously polishing the stone with some sandpaper. As she did, she began to notice a thin sifting of a yellow substance begin to gather. Looking at it closely, her heart began to race. It was gold!
Feverishly she sanded faster. More gold appeared. Now she was excited and she scrubbed that rock like it was Aladdin’s lamp.
Stopping to wipe her brow, she was about to return to the task when she noticed the something was wrong with her wedding ring. The top side was normal but the bottom was now thin as a cheese slicer, nothing more than a filament.
And then she realized what she’d been doing. She hadn’t been uncovering gold with the sandpaper, she had been sanding off her wedding ring!
We may shake our heads and smile, but the point Buchanan makes is a sobering one.
How many times do we do the same thing? We work furiously to make a living not realizing that in so doing we’re sanding away our “wedding ring.” Little by little, we’re losing what’s really important in life.
God modeled Sabbath
I think that’s one reason why God gave us the Sabbath. It was to be a day of rest, restoration, and recalibration. A day when we could remember that we were created as human beings, not human doings.
God gave us the Sabbath. It was to be a day of rest, restoration, and recalibration. A day when we could remember that we were created as human beings, not human doings.
God knows us well. He recognized our human reluctance to do what is best for us in the long run. So, He modeled a day of rest for us.
Genesis 2 begins by saying:
Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
Mark it well – He didn’t take a day of rest because He was tired. He didn’t think to Himself, “Wow! I’m beat. Thank Me it’s Friday!”
No. God rested for our good. He rested, not because He needed it, but because we need it. He was showing us just how important a day of rest is in our non-stop world.
God rested for OUR good. He rested, not because HE needed it, but because WE need it.
God mandated Sabbath
Yet, knowing that wouldn’t be sufficient motivation, God then went on to mandate taking a day of rest. It was included in the ultimate list of laws, the Ten Commandments.
“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work...
Right along with “Do not murder,” and “Do not commit adultery,” is this: Remember the Sabbath. Evidently, God takes Sabbath-keeping as seriously as he does being an idol-worshipper or ax-murderer!
Here’s the challenge for me. Though I’ve been given this model and this mandate, I still struggle to ease off on the accelerator. “After all,” I reason, “there’s so much to be done.”
Yet, in so doing, I end up with my own version of sanding off my wedding ring. In making a living, I end up losing my life.
So…I’m recommitting myself to honoring a day of rest. Not because I’ve earned it. Not because all the work is done. But because the One who made me asked me to follow His example and obey His exhortation.
I’m recommitting myself to honoring a day of rest. Not because I’ve earned it. Not because all the work is done. But because the One who made me asked me to follow His example and obey His exhortation.
The Sabbath. It’s one of the greatest gifts our Creator gave us.
Now if only we will enjoy it!
PRAYER
Lord, I have to admit that, all too often, I let work rule the day… every day. Looking at the bottom line of productivity and accomplishment, I fail to see that, ultimately, I’m losing more than I’m winning. Help me to remember the Sabbath. Help me, even more, to see it as something to keep me from myself.
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