Fruits of rest and restlessness

Lily Cathcart March 06, 2022 0 0

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Deuteronomy 26: 3-10 (NRSVA)

3 You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time, and say to him, ‘Today I declare to the Lord your God that I have come into the land that the Lord swore to our ancestors to give us.’ 4 When the priest takes the basket from your hand and sets it down before the altar of the Lord your God, 5 you shall make this response before the Lord your God: ‘A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. 6 When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labour on us, 7 we cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors; the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. 8 The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; 9 and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10 So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O Lord, have given me.’ You shall set it down before the Lord your God and bow down before the Lord your God.

When you have been restless, as we humans so often are, and you come suddenly from the adventuring wilderness to a place of rest; it is good to reflect and to take stock of what your journeys have left you with. There will usually be some good things and some bad but all of them, as the passage reminds us, have a place in the story of us and our journey to this point.

It can be really hard to review and relive the hard moments from our wildernesses but God is love and understanding and in God’s gentle presence we are safe to see our stories clearly and begin to heal and let go of our hurts and scars.

So what about the joyous elements to the story, the things we have gained and learned along the way? They too are part of us and our story, a part to celebrate and nurture. From these parts grow many fruits such as new skills and new attitudes entwined gradually into who we are.

Today’s words from Deuteronomy remind us that from these new fruits of our new selves we can give to God. God who was there in our restlessness and God who will be with us too in our stillness until we journey again.

PRAYER:

Dear God who sees our stories

Help us to see our whole selves through your eyes

Heal our hurts

Rejoice in our joys

Journey with our restless souls forever

Amen