CHRISTCOMMUNITY CHURCH

 

Last October, Cherie and I took our three kids and an enormous amount of luggage to New Zealand for two months of long service leave. Such a unique time in our lives! Yes, we did see a lot of beautiful places, and took plenty of photos. We also took away some more precious things that are well worth sharing.

 

The question I most got asked before we left was, ‘So what are you going to do with your time?’ I asked myself the same question a lot, but eventually realised that maybe that’s not the right question. Good rest is just as much, maybe more about what you don’t do, what you rest from, what you stop doing. Kind of like panning for gold (we stayed a while in Queenstown, once a big goldrush area). How they got the gold was not by picking it out, but  by removing everything else, all the superfluous rocks and dirt. The gold is what’s left at the end.

 

So what gold did we find? Apart from rare quantity time with Cherie and the kids in a chaotic season of life, three nuggets were simplicity, identity, beauty. As for the first two, I was never sure why, but it always seemed to me that the people who best grasp God’s love are those who know how to be still. We tasted something of why that is. Being away from all the things that can drive my priorities and make me busy, I realised more that my significance and worth aren’t wrapped up in what I do, but in the love the Father and His Son Jesus have for me. As for beauty, there are places over there that take your breath away. Sometimes you get this strange feeling like you’re coming home. That longing for home isn’t a longing to live in New Zealand. It’s a longing for our home in the new heaven and earth, where beauty will be the air we breathe in a perfect world and in the presence of Jesus, the source of it all. That’s the home we truly long for, the ultimate rest.