I can’t tell you the exact year that this happened but it was
somewhere between 10-12 years ago.
We live in a house that has a brick front complete with an archway.
One day, the girls and I came home and next to our front door on the brick
was a huge dragonfly. It was a lovely green and although we wanted to touch it,
we just stared at it and then went inside.
We took pictures and our uninvited yet welcome guest lodged upon brick for a day and a half.
One moment that dragonfly was staying at our house and the next
it was gone as quietly as it had arrived.
Now you have to also understand that I love dragonflies as well as ladybugs.
I thought it was quite cool and I dubbed our house the dragonfly house.
Perhaps that dragonfly knew it would find a safe place with a kind innkeeper 😉
But like I said, this was years ago, I don’t think the message was widely broadcast.
That was until this past week, when it happened again.
Now we have one more child.
Caleb was out playing with some neighborhood kids and all of a sudden I notice pairs of eyes
peering up on our front porch.
I came outside and I see this:
This time it was WAY above our front door.
It stayed in this position for about a day.
Then on the second day, it moved opposite of the door to the archway.
Then it was gone.
I Googled to see why this might happen.
I didn’t find a lot of information but one answer caught my attention.
Dragonflies need to stop and rest, just like everyone else.
They need to rest, just like you, just like me.
Why should I be surprised that they can’t just fly endlessly?
The need for rest became very clear this past weekend.
As if I had been examining the concept of rest from the wrong
end of a telescope. The more I viewed it from the wide lens,
the farther away it appeared.
I lost my direction.
I literally got lost.
It could have been the mixture of desiring to live a life that overflows
and the pace of life in general but somewhere and somehow rest slipped away.
At some point, the overflow must slow to a trickle.
So the days have been full and I have tried to cram more and more into spaces
that were not empty.
The space that was left for me to examine my directions to a retreat last Saturday
fell to Friday at about 10:30pm.
Not a wise decision.
Late night decisions are rarely wise.
When the minutes are ticking you closer to your pillow, there are many routes
that seem logical including the wrong one.
Google Maps let me down.
But the reality is…
I got lost.
Actually my directions directed me fine.
They just didn’t direct me to where I needed to be.
I made a panicked call and was told that I was WAY
north.
Once again literally and figuratively.
It is humbling to be prayed for by a group of women for
your own pitiful mistake.
I will say that no matter the reason, prayer does work.
I found my way to a place called Shepherd’s Rest.
I truly could not make that destination up.
It’s nice to be welcomed when one has been lost.
It is even nicer to be embraced and not told
that you have been foolish because everyone else
found their way.
They simply were glad to see me.
Heavy sigh.
These women gave me a picture of the Shepherd who
looks for and loves lost sheep.
I think it is time to be a bit more like that dragonfly and
realize the need to stop and rest.
The funny thing is that our family didn’t bother that dragonfly.
We wanted to touch it, potentially disturbing it, scaring it off,
but we didn’t.
We just let it be.
We realized that we might not understand it ways but
that it was doing what it was designed to do.
I think we all need times of undisturbed rest.
It can seem impossible to figure out how that can coincide
with life.
I know that I must be more mindful and intentional.
To rest more on Sundays.
To say no and not feel selfish.
To take a walk. One author writes of taking a Sabbath walk.
This type of walk is without any purpose or need for insight or
revelation. Simply letting your soul catch up with you.
I love this thought because I think there are very few things that
I do that don’t have purpose and productivity written in red.
When I walk, it is for exercise, for health, for relaxation, to burn
calories, and on and on.
It rarely is just to simply be.
I think I missed the point of desiring to live a life that overflows.
I think that the abundant life that Jesus declares has to do also
with taking time to rest. Jesus gave us examples of telling
the disciples to come away with him for a time of rest. We witness him
leaving the multitude and going to a solitary place to pray but
also to rest. Some translate the word pray as “time of rest”.
Rest restores our souls.
We can’t be abundant when we our souls are lacking.
Psalm 23 would be incomplete if the imagery
of rest was omitted.
Interesting how that psalm is worded:
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside quiet waters,
He restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness.
You prepare a table before me.
You anoint my head with oil.
I cannot find rest and the benefits if I continue
to skip around the meadow, waving at the Master and
do not allow the Him to ministry to me.
I can’t do it myself.
Rest originates and completes itself in God.
The beauty is that He wants to do it for me.
It is not a burden or imposition for Him.
He is beckoning me to His rest.
He will be glad to see me.
So that’s my story?
A bit humbling but true.
God is making me lie down.
How are you today?
Are you in need of some rest as well?
Don’t wait until you get utterly lost before
you find the space for rest.
If God has designed a dragonfly to rest,
He most certainly has that in mind for
us as well.
Take him up on the offer to find His beautiful
terrain and cool refreshing waters.
oh…I’m so convicted….but in a very sweet and gentle way. 🙂 Thank you Helen, for this reminder. It is beautifully written as always. I needed to hear this and it gives me both hope and encouragement.
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Hi Helen….I think you wrote this for me (or God did)…as I just stopped at a coffee shop, as i’m about an hour early to pick up the boy from camp…an unexpected rest, truly…xo
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Excellent, now be sure to take your own advice.
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Hi ladies…glad that there was encouragement to rest…I will be praying that you each get some pleasant unexpected patches of rest.
Dad…thanks and point taken!
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