Work and RestSample

He gives food to all flesh, for his steadfast love endures forever. (Psalm 136:25)

On their first day of school, my daughters burst out of bed, put on the clothes they'd laid out the night before, and were waiting in the car ten minutes before we had to leave. On their tenth day of school, it took a herculean effort to pry them out of bed, find clean clothes, and get out the door. There was clearly a "What, this again?" atmosphere in the house.

Psalm 136 repeats one phrase: "his steadfast love endures forever." Some might ask, "What, this again?" The structure of Psalm 136 underscores the relentless and necessary repetition of creation and all life. Repetition threatens to make our everyday life nearly intolerable. But Psalm 136 affirms that the repetition woven into the fabric of creation is glorious.

In his book, Orthodoxy, G. K. Chesterton writes, "[Children] want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, 'Do it again'; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For [they] are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is . . . It is possible that God says every morning, 'Do it again' to the sun; and every evening, 'Do it again' to the moon . . . It may [also] be that [although all daisies are alike,] God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them."

Jesus invites us to return to a child-like relationship with God. In the process, we rediscover a child's—and God's—delight in repetitive acts of re-creation.

Prayer: Father, renew in me your delight in the glorious repetition of my work.