Made Like Glass

“We all need space.  We were made to have breaks.  So even though it’s busy, come find your rest.”

Loren Thornburg

I am learning the hard way that glass doesn’t handle temperature change very well.  I have broken multiple glass dishes forgetting that glass doesn't adjust to differing temperatures quickly.  Apparently, it has to do with the lack of elasticity in the makeup of glass.  This means they need time to transition from one temperature to the next.  I am finding that much like glass, I need time to transition from one thing to the next.  Although some people are able to move easily from one thing to the next at some point we all need space to transition.  We are not without limits.  For most of us our limits are comparable to glass: fragile and easily broken if not given enough time and space.  I hate to admit it but I need margin in my life.  We all have a little glass in us.  Embrace your limits and enjoy some space.

“Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, 'Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.'”

Mark 6:31 NIV

In the midst of the chaos Jesus called his disciples away.  In the middle of needs there was a greater need for rest.  It wasn’t because things slowed down that Jesus called them to a quiet place, but simply because it was time for some rest.  God created us for rest.  He made us to need quiet spaces in our days.  Often we miss this finding activity of greater importance.  We dismiss rest as for those who are lacking.  Yet, what I’m finding is that rest actually requires more strength.  It requires me to step away from doing and it asks that I relinquish me as the one who is in control.  Often we fear we might miss something in this quiet place of being, but what I’m finding is that the greater loss is what I miss by not being in the quiet with the One who created me.  So let us accept our fragility of design and enter into the quiet place of rest.