In past years when we haven’t gone away for Sukkot I’ve put up a sukkah.
This year we were home so the thought came almost like a reminder from some outside source “It’s just a day or two. I want to have one.”
I’d had a procedure done and wasn’t able to do much more than walk around and that slow and in short spurts. So I enlisted the help of my grandson and we spent three quarters of the day putting things together. I had enough left over materials from other projects so we walked around, I pointed to this and that and he carried it all to the spot where we would build.
Then I took a chair off the front porch, sat it and myself under a tree and watched.
As he would be about digging holes for the corner posts I would be seeing the next step of connecting the corner posts with cross pieces, how to lay it out, screw it together and lift it into place, each step and convey that to him as he went from one step to the next, till all was done.
Sitting there not actively working allowed me to visualize not just the big steps but also to see all the little details needed to bring it together. It kind of made me think along the lines that physical work is necessary to get things done but quiet thoughtfulness, a specific kind of inactivity is needed if the work is to be done orderly and without confusion and the final product satisfy the purpose for which it was made. “Think first then act” you might be condensing this down to.” What’s so novel about that?” Well it’s just that this was the first time I ever sat in a chair to watch as others worked. And maybe it shouldn’t have been. My tendency is to jump right in and think along the way. That has caused many a missed detail and mistakes, and…well I’ll leave it to your imagine how that often turned out.
But what I’m actually getting at is that a set apart time from activity is beneficial and needs to be a part of the overall work. It allows for taking a breather, discussing things, making sure something hasn’t been forgotten and that everything’s on track going forward…ideally speaking.
A pattern was taking shape.
So Sukkot came and we all spent time under the sukkah my grandson built. We read special readings, the Torah portion, scriptures we’d been lead to. We talked unhurriedly, saying and hearing and learning things from one another…
that we might not have in busy circumstances.
We sat quietly, sometimes together, between conversations, sometimes alone in thought… acknowledging Yahweh’s realness and presence by talking to Him… experiencing awareness of Him and enjoying that the Spirit of God is with us…
He brings to mind the progress we’ve made, things done right and corrections that need to be made going forward. He brings back into focus His purposes and our purpose in them and we are refreshed and reenergized in body and spirit.
We watch as first sunlight touches and lights the high branches of trees facing east and spreads slowly across the yard, hear as birds seem to have awakened and begin vocalizing back and forth, catch the movement of little lizards in the grass, butterflies fluttering about, feel as a breeze moves the air from the shade and cools the warmth we feel from the sun. Squirrels make their appearance running and chasing erratically along the branches above. We gaze at pure blue shy, follow the motion of low clouds passing overhead swiftly, and very thin high clouds above moving ever so slowly. We see the moon and stars, through darkness, their light far out in space, and then again as it shimmers on the leaves of the trees and the surface of waters below.
Sitting there we are on break in the yearly work day, so to speak, that our Creator and Master has scheduled for us. Work in the employ of our Master is not all work and no play.
The sukkah will remain for a while even though the set time has passed because maybe there is a residual sense of having stepped out of one world into another when I sit in it and I want to hang on to that.
But it will have to go till next year because there are other set times our Father has scheduled along the way for the rest and refreshing we will need… each with its own medicinal qualities and all able to work in us what our Father knows we need and He wants for us…
all getting Him the glory that is truly and only His.
We thank You Father for Sukkot.
We thank You that in You and only You is provision and permanence and that this is a time to remember and look forward to the Day when we will permanently tabernacle with You .
You are faithful and able.
You are attentive and gracious.
You love Your children and would have them with You.
You provide for those who wait on You that they might…
…”renew their strength;
mount up with wings as eagles;
run and not be weary;”
and…
…walk, and not faint.”
We love You Father.
In Yeshua’s name we pray.
Amen.
May God’s love be in us all.
Elder.
Isaiah 40:31 KJV
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