When I was ten, my mother enrolled me in piano lessons. Spending afternoons tethered to a piano bench was a torture just one level away from swallowing broken glass. Some of the music I enjoyed. I hammered the staccatos. But I could never understand the rest. The zigzagged command to do nothing. Nothing! What sense does that make? Why sit and pause when you can pound? “Because,” my teacher patiently explained, “music is always sweeter after a rest.”

Divine wisdom. In fact, it reminds me of the convictions of another Teacher. Before He went to the masses, Christ went to the mountain. Before the disciples encountered the crowds, they encountered the Christ. And before they faced the people, they were reminded of the sacred! Is it time for you to rest?

From The Applause of Heaven