(Auntie Audrey, Grandma, Trev’s Dad)

This pretty much sums up how we’re all feeling after the pace of this week.  Ironically, the three people in the photo are back at it again today, having taken the train to center city for some sightseeing.  It’s our young and spry family of five who are taking the day off today.  All five of us are stricken with a cold, to varying extents.   I’m not sure how the elder Youngs have managed to escape it, but there’s no slowing down die-hard holiday-makers.

On Tuesday, we all stopped by my mom’s store for coffee before going to Pennsbury Manor while Trev worked his one day for this week.  It was a lot of outside time, and it was pretty cold, but Pippa was delighted to get to carry the keys around for our tour guide, and a good time was had by all.

Yesterday we went to the zoo. ‘The zoo?’ you may ask. ‘But it’s February…’ Ah, then you must not know about the great winter bargain at the zoo. If it’s in the 50’s out, you get in for $5. If it’s in the 40’s, you get in for $4. If it’s in the 30’s, $3…. You get the picture. Let’s just say we got in cheap yesterday! I realized while we were there, to my shame, that Romilly had not been to the zoo since she was about Beatrix’s age. She *loved* it. She was out of the stroller running around the place all day (after all, we were the only ten people crazy enough to be at the zoo yesterday), and she literally leapt for joy and laughed outloud with each new animal she encountered.  Except maybe for this one:

This ‘little’ guy, aged 9 months, wanted to be her friend, bless him.  He was trying to high-five her and even put his nose against the glass to show her his silly side, but she wasn’t having it.  This is her walking to me very quickly.  I thought this little cub saw a kindred spirit in her.  A playmate.  A friend he hadn’t met yet.  Trevor thought the look on his face was more like, “Mmm… afternoon tea!”  and I think Romilly sided with him.

Anyway, when faced with the prospect of leaving at 9:30 this moring to catch the train for another cold day of sightseeing with our poor drippy girls, we had to call a younger Young family pow-wow, and we decided to have ourselves a day of rest.  At present, the girls are all napping, which they *desperately* needed, and we’ve had  chance to breathe.

Well, it wouldn’t be right to blog about resting without some mention of what the Bible has to say on the subject.  I could discuss how God rested on the seventh day after completing all of His creating, or how He established the sabbath as a day of rest for his people Israel.  I could even get into why we tend to have our day of rest on Sunday instead of Saturday, the original sabbath, but to be honest, my one day of rest hasn’t cleared my foggy brain quite enough for any of that.  Instead my weary head turns to these verses in Matthew 11:

“28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

What a wearisome thing life is, isn’t it?  When I start to become overwhelmed with life, I have to bring myself back to these words. “Rest for your souls…”  Sometimes we think if our bodies could just get the rest we need, our souls would be just fine.  But without Christ, our spiritual burden is much greater than any physical or emotional one we’ve ever carried.  Our labor apart from Christ is that of one enslaved to a master we can never appease.  Working to satisfy appetites that grow only hungrier, and at the same working to find approval from a Holy God whose approval we know we do not deserve.  What a burden!  There is nothing so restful as trading that burden for whatever the Lord, who made me and loves me, has in store for me.  Whether He would call me to the farthest corner of the world to share His love, or simply to wake up three times in the night to *cheerfully* tend to my poor sick babies, it is a lighter yoke than bearing my own sin.  What an amazing God, to offer us rest not only from the physical labors of life, but also from striving to earn our favor with Him.  We can rest, because Christ has carried that burden for us.  So simple, so sweet, and so easily forgotten, but today I am thankful *again* for the truth of the rest I have in Him.