The true meaning of rest

Two painters each painted a picture to illustrate his conception of rest. The first chose for his scene a still, placid lake nestled among the far-off mountains.

The second threw on his canvas a thundering waterfall, with a fragile birch tree bending over the foam: and at the fork of the branch, almost wet from the water's spray, sat a robin on its nest.

The first was only stagnation.
The last one was rest.

Jesus life outwardly was one of the most troubled lives that ever lived: tempest and tumult, tumult and tempest, the waves breaking over it all the time until the worn body was laid in the grave. But the inner life was a sea of glass. The great calm was always there.

At any moment you might have gone to Him and found rest. Even as His life on earth was ending, He turned to his closest followers and offered them as a last legacy, "My peace."

"Rest is not a hallowed feeling that comes over us in church; it is the repose of a heart set deep in God."

adapted from "Streams in the Desert"