An Unexpected Sabbath

          The latest of the snowstorms to hit Kentucky has  gifted me with an unexpected sabbath. My son and daughter-in-law are at home, so baby Elizabeth is there with her parents. The 14 inches of snow, coupled with the way my car sits low to the ground, has ensured that I am not going to be travelling anywhere outside my yard today. My few chores completed and another cup of tea brewed, I sit in the sunroom where my four sleeping dogs lie asleep.

          I recognize this probably is not a very popular thing to say, but I love the snow. I love the purity of its whiteness and the hush of daily life the snow brings with it. I enjoy watching the dogs, from the  short-legged Beagle/Bassett to the loping Walker Coon Hound, romp across the yard. I appreciate that a beautiful part of God's creation can bring me to a dead stop in the business of my life.

          You see, even when I have a sabbath day, I often spend it running errands, doing laundry, visiting the dentist or keeping some other appointment that I don't ordinarily have time to do. The day does not belong to God anymore that it belongs to me. It belongs to the business of life.

          When I was in high school, I had a good friend who was an Orthodox Jew. One weekend, I went to stay with her family while my parents were out of town. As sundown neared Friday afternoon, Rebeccah reminded me to get my shower finished, my hair washed and dried, my clothes ready for Saturday. You see, when the Sabbath began, when those three starts came out to shine in the evening sky, all work in Rebeccah's family came to an end, not to be started again until the end of the Sabbath. After dinner, we did not watch TV, we did no homework, we did not even turn out the hallway light when we went to sleep. We had entered into God's time, not our own. Saturday morning, we ate pastries left out from the night before, we changed from our pajamas into our Saturday best and then walked to synagogue. We walked back to Rebeccah's following the morning service and ate the rest of the food that had been set out the night before. It was not until the Sabbath was ended that we headed out to dinner in the family car, addressed waiting homework and returned to our time.

          I have not thought of Rebeccah for years, but my weekend at her house has lingered today in my mind as I watch and embrace the glory of God's creation. I have sat and watched the birds crowd about the feeders I filled for them during the early start of yesterday's snowfall. I have held Sam, the 60+-pound dog I adopted at the Blessing of the Animals, up in my lap for nearly an hour as he has snuffled and snored in his sleep. I have caught up reading the daily meditations in the Lenten book a friend sent to me. I have watched squirrels jump  from branch to branch and tree to tree.

After the six-day creation of the universe and all that is there in it, on the seventh day, God rested and saw that it was good. On this day of an unexpected Sabbath, in the hushed silence of  my view here in the sunroom, God's creation is indeed good.  In the future,  may I not be so willing to give up my Sabbath day. Thanks be to God!