Sabbath Moment Play

Dear Sabbath Seekers,

Usually I am with my granddaughter each afternoon for about 4 hours.  The afternoons are full of play like dress up, tea parties,  craft time, dolls, trucks, snacks and, if I am lucky, a little down time!!!  And the time passes quickly with all this play and laughter filling our lives each day.   This past week her Dad came home early and I was only there about 45 minutes.  As I got ready to leave, she looked at me and said, “but we didn’t get time to play.”

Again, she triggered an idea for a Sabbath Moment.  I wonder how often God feels like that as we rush around completing tasks, doing errands and not taking time to play in his creation or spend some playful moments with him?

And I don’t think I am being sacrilegious saying this.  Look at the world that God created in its raw beauty and nature.  Birds sing and swoop and play in the sky.  Clouds dance and trees clap their hands with the wind.  The brooks babble and foam in a frenzy of running and tripping along their path.  Flowers turn their faces up to the sun and burst open with a beauty that makes us smile.  Wild animals run, jump, climb and wrestle with each other.  There is playing going on all over creation.

Why have we reduced time with God to some routine prayers?  Or, equate it to a sermon that may or may not inspire us?  Or, think that time with God always has to be solemn or hard work?  Now, I know not everyone does that.  And I also know that many people do.  The church has a lot of explaining to do on that point I fear.  But I digress.

So for your Sabbath Moments this week find time to play with God or in God’s creation.  If you can’t find ways to play, then find ways to be playful in your attitude.   Relax into the playfulness of snowflakes floating through the air and landing on your nose.  Rest in the warmth of the sunshine and let it warm your insides too.  Refresh yourself in the basics of nature and let its beauty fill your heart and mind with joy and peace.  These are moments of play.  These are Sabbath moments.

“We are never more fully alive, more completely ourselves, or more deeply engrossed in anything, than we are at play.”  Charles Schaefer

“You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.”  Isaiah 55.12

Playful blessings,

Nancy