Making Music In The Rest

Making Music In The Rest

“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28 NKJV

There is no music in a rhythmical rest, but there is the making of music in it. In our whole life-melody the music is broken off here and there by rests, and we foolishly think we have come to the end of the theme. God sends a time of forced leisure, sickness, disappointed plans and frustrated efforts, and makes a sudden pause in the choral hymn of our lives.

And we lament that our voices must be silent, and our part missing in the music which ever goes up to the ear of the Creator. How does the musician read the rest? See him beat the time with unvarying count, and catch up the next note true and steady, as if no breaking place had come between.

Not without design does God write the music of our lives. Be it ours to learn the tune, and not to be dismayed at the rests. They are not to be slurred over, not to be omitted, not to destroy the melody, not to change the keynote. If we look up, God Himself will beat the time for us. With our eye on Him, we shall strike the next note full and clear.

If we sadly say to ourselves, there is no music in a rest, let us not forget that there is the making of music in it. The making of music is often a slow and painful process in this life. How patiently God works to teach, how long He waits for us to learn this lesson.

“Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” Mark 6:31

By John Ruskin (1818-1900)