Lenten Devotional – Feb 24, 2023

Friday, February 24, 2023
The Sabbath by Abraham Heschel
Lenten Devotional by Pastor Travis

Heschel writes, “Unless one learns how to relish the taste of sabbath while still in this world, unless one is initiated in the appreciation of eternal life, one will be unable to enjoy the taste of eternity in the world to come. Sad is the lot of him who arrives inexperienced and when led to heaven has no power to perceive the beauty of the Sabbath.” 
 
Heschel describes the Sabbath as a taste of heaven. It is the experience now of what eternity might be like. As I was reading this I thought of those times in my life when I really experienced full presence in the moment without a thought or care about what came before or what came after. Have you had time like that, experiences when time seems to lose its meaning? I remember fly fishing in the Missouri when I served a church in Montana and experiencing the harmony with nature as I was chest deep in the water watching the river ebb and flow around me. I could have been there for an hour or a day and it would have felt the same. I think this is what eternity will feel like and what sabbath can prepare us for. 
 
Through reading this book I’ve come to name my woodworking as a sabbath practice. When I’m in my garage working on a project, time loses its meaning. All of a sudden, it’s lunch time or dinner time and I am surprised that much time has passed. But the experience of this is a way to experience God’s presence differently. God exists in this kind of time, which is only present, and it fascinates me. God is there in a new way to me, and I look forward now to this sabbath practice as a way to get to know a new side of God that I hadn’t paid attention to before.
 
Prayer:
Holy God, you are present to me now in ways I can’t fully understand. Help me to step into eternity, into the present moment that never ends, so that I might experience now a taste of what you have in store for me in the life to come. In Jesus’ name. Amen.