A devotional by Sandy Martin

The first 10 years of my life took place on a farm with meadows, a pond, plowed fields, and woodland. I was the youngest of 6 children, so I grew up surrounded by a community. Our farm was a place to gather for neighborhood kids. So, as a true-blue extrovert, it was quite traumatic to watch all my siblings and then my best friend & neighbor, Kevin head off to school.

My days were filled with boredom. I spent those days laying on my back watching cloud formations. Blue bells in the meadow were another setting that took me to places of awe and wonder. We had a huge maple tree in our front yard. If you climbed to a certain spot you could see for miles. Even in those days God was already planting a seed in my heart. I was learning the discipline of quiet solitude with my Creator God.

I tend to be a forward thinker. What adventure is next? I constantly asked my mom, “What can I do?” As a young girl, I woke up each day asking, “What are we doing today?” So, it was quite understandable when my mother decided to send me to first grade (no kindergarten in those days) at the ripe age of 5.

Being the 2nd youngest in my graduating class, I could look back on key times where I felt my “youngness.” I remember one specific time when I came home from school exhausted and fatigued. I did not understand the things that my friends were interested in. I was trying hard to fit in to a world for which I was not yet ready. In frustration, I dropped my school things in the kitchen, grabbed an apple and headed out into the woods. There was this spot that I kept going back to, whenever life was too hard to understand. There, a small stream wound through the woods. Rocks and sticks created an area where the water pooled up. On this particular day there were a few colored leaves just gently floating around. They didn’t think about where they had been, how they’d gotten there or where they were going. They were just present, floating in this protected pool for this period of time. Similarly, for right now, my heart was safe. I was free to be me, no pretending, just being still and fully present in this moment. This was another seed planted in my heart by my Creator God calling my soul to quiet rest. In the years to come there would be moments of intense physical pain, like childbirth, where my mind would focus on that pooling area where there was beauty, peace, calm and the presence of my God. There would also be times of great sorrow when I would draw strength from these times of “pooling.”

The Bible says:

Isaiah 30: 15 This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy one of Israel says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation. in quietness and trust is your strength.

Exodus 33:14 The Lord replied, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.

Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

There comes a time when we stop the over thinking. We stop over analyzing our past, we quit strategizing our future and we are “still” in God’s pooling area, just being present and enjoying Him for who He is and who He created us to be. God in his great love for us provides “pooling areas”, where we can rest completely in Him. When we choose to struggle in a pooling area that God has intended for rest, we muddy the water and can disturb the rest in the hearts of those closest to us. These resting areas are so important. It keeps us balanced. It calms our anxious hearts. It brings in God’s perspective. It brings us close to the heart of our God.

This summer, amid the busyness of graduations, family vacations and outdoor activities, hear God’s call to be still.  Seek and find the richness that comes from simply resting in Him.