8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
Today is Easter. Jesus IS Alive! Whenever the Sabbath day is talked about in the Old Testament there is always the connection drawn between the Lord’s creation of the universe in six days and His resting on the seventh. This pattern is clear. God worked and rested, we should follow the Lord’s example. We are to reflect His pattern. We are to be like Him. Our activities on the seventh day are to be different from our activities on the other days. The Lord did the work of creation on the six days. We are to do our regular work on the six days. We are to earn a living on those six days. The seventh is to be different. The second theme that is often connected to the Sabbath is that of trust. We are to trust that the Lord will provide, even if we don’t work on the seventh. We trust that if we obey the Lord in this small matter, He will honor us and provide for our needs. Our job is to keep that seventh day separate for Him. This is very hard for us to do. A hundred years ago in this country everything was closed on Sundays. Our cultural tradition recognized that Sunday was supposed to be different. This gave everyone off on that day, except the preachers. We gathered for worship and spent time with family and friends. We didn’t do those activities that we did every other day that constituted our work lives. Sunday was different. Our challenge is to not let it become like every other day. We should spend time in worship and focus on our family. We should change our routine on Sunday to make it easier to spend that time, to focus our energies. Our focus should be different. Maybe the TV gets unplugged, along with the Xbox and all those other isolating electronic devices. Church, card games, puzzles, backyard activities, walks, bike rides, storytelling, or joint meal preparation. All these and many more could make a special day, a day refocused, a day run differently because the Lord is in charge of your life. As you celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus today, make it a different day because He is alive!