JEANIE JURA | Eternally Alive in Christ
A few years ago I moved to my current town to be near my parents. They were getting on in years and even though they were fully capable of living unassisted, they wanted family nearby. I stayed with them for a few months, and then I found my own place to live.
A couple of years later, in lieu of moving into a retirement home, they asked if I would do their weekly cleaning for them so they could stay in their own home. Of course, the cleaning had to happen on Friday as that was the day to do such things in an Adventist home.
One recent Friday, as I was cleaning and feeling that good feeling of making the house ready for the Sabbath (for them), I suddenly realized what I was feeling. It was what I call that Friday Night Feeling.
You know the feeling. It’s the one that comes after the day’s preparation…
You know the feeling. It’s the one that comes after the day’s preparation: the bathroom is scrubbed and clean with clean towels hanging up; the laundry is all done, folded and put away; there are freshly washed sheets on the beds; the kitchen is cleaned and straightened up, and the “wrong” books and magazines are put away. It is a clean, restful feeling of goodness, where you actually have hope of the possibility of salvation, if you can just stay as good and as clean as the house is at that moment.
The Sabbath dinner casserole is in the fridge, ready for the timed oven in the morning, and the regular Friday night meal may be almost ready. (In our home it was always beans with fresh bread.) There is no need to think about homework, or projects, or work problems—or, for that matter, any other “secular” thoughts; instead, there is the thought that you might actually be ok with God, at least for the moment. There may even be gospel music playing to set the mood. Yes, it’s that wonderful, brief Friday Night Feeling.
From Fleeting to Forever
I say brief as that feeling sometimes lasts until near sundown on Sabbath. That’s the time when the even happier feeling of release comes—it’s finally time to let loose and have some fun again. The release is accompanied, of course, by some guilt at even having such feelings, and by the return of the less-than-certain “hope” that is more of a finger-crossing wish than a certainty.
Well, on that recent Friday, while I was in my parents’ kitchen, it must have been the smell of the cooking beans that triggered the feeling, which resulted in a small smile at the memory. My next immediate thought, though, which came straight from God, was one that stopped me in my tracks. It made me smile and even laugh out loud in pure delight! In Christ, that Friday Night Feeling is all the time, not limited to one short evening or one day a week. It is accompanied by a real, certain hope that is full of anticipation, not doubt. It never has to end and is truly restful.
In Christ, that Friday Night Feeling is all the time, not limited to one short evening or one day a week.
As I was thinking of this forever rest and hope yet again this morning, my Bible reading was in Matthew 11. I don’t believe in coincidence where things of God are concerned, and I am certain He directed me to that chapter to read. I understand that Hebrews 4 talks about our rest in Christ, but many people argue that that is just assumed, not explicit. That is why Matthew 11:28, 29 was so fitting.
Jesus says to come to Him and HE will give us rest. It could not be any clearer than that — our rest is in Him, and that good, clean—but fleeting—“Friday Night Feeling” can last forever and be every day, not just once a week. †
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