SITTING WITH CHRIST

7/23/2016

While researching “the Sabbath,” I came upon a writer who, after presenting many facts, began to wax eloquently about spending time with CHRIST. It was as if his heart took over his pen.

I’ve heard the phrase, “swimming in the ocean of GOD’s love” as a description for fellowship with GOD, but since I’m afraid of water, it’s not a word-picture that calms my soul.

I am always searching for word-pictures to help my mind grasp a concept and William Law’s words have done that for me. This is the quote that carried me back to a serene scene in my past:

“Heaven is one ocean of repose. No billow heaves. No storm affrights. No foe can enter. No change can cloud the calm expanse of the unruffled sky. But what is heaven, but to see Christ, as He is—to gaze forever on His unveiled beauty—to sit with Him—…Heaven is heaven, because it is an eternal Sabbath by the side of Jesus” Henry Law (ref#214).

How often I have attempted to find a simile that describes a get together with CHRIST—some thought of a scene that would place me in His presence. This quote has reminded me of one and it is one that is real; it comes out of my past.

It was the summer I signed up for a graduate class from a university far away from my residence. It required rising at 4:30AM but I felt it doable until I was thrust into an interim position as a YWCA camp director that required evening meetings with camp counselors until as late at midnight.

Our cabins sat high on a bluff above Lake Eire. And I knew the responsibility of camp director plus the lack of sleep was wearing me out when the white noise of the waves interrupted my sleep.

When the camp’s swimming classes for the day ended and I had a moment free I would walk down the makeshift stairs to the water’s edge. It was the only place I knew that offered solitude. The most exhilarating time there came when the lake was calm. How no noise soothed my fragmented, frazzled mind.

“Heaven if one ocean of repose. No billow heaves” Henry Law (ref#214). This is my word-picture safe-place! This is the vision I will bring to my mind when I sit with CHRIST. For me sitting in the arms of CHRIST overlooking an endless calm sea conjures up a snippet of my eternal Sabbath.