What’s that Mazda commercial? Zoom Zoom Zoom…I thought it was about going superfast in a cheap car, but as I sing the words Zoom Zoom in my head I think it is about Christmas. Maybe instead of Deck the Halls or Joy to the World a more proper tune to sing would be the Zoom Zoom Zoom song as it reflects what we have done to Christmas.

Is it just me or has this Christmas been extremely trying, or tiring, or whatever the proper word is. I find myself not having anytime at all to do anything. Christmas, far from being a time of “Peace on Earth” feels like “Havoc in my Foxhole.”

Surely this isn’t what Christ intended by coming as a baby, living His life, and rising from the dead, was it?

Of course not.

God has always intended for His people to have a time of rest, of recharge, a gathering of focus to reset our eyes upon Him AS OUR REST. In the Old Testament this rest was mandated through law (Exodus 16:26; Exodus 20:8), in the New Testament (Hebrews 4:9-11) we are told that God’s rest is continuing to this day and we are to be those that enter into it. Entering into God’s rest is about hope and grace, neither of which we will understand when we are too hurried.

Hope has always, from the foundation of the earth, been found in our Great God.

Hope and trust in Him brings true rest because we realize we do not have to be in charge or control the world around us. Everything is His, including us, and we can slow down and take time to properly honor our God, as we should: unhurried and unworried.

This Christmas, use the brakes of grace to take a moment to slow down and rest…and in that rest, ask God to reveal Himself to you through His word and His Spirit so you can become who He made you to be: a person of hope and rest.