Drain Grate Rest
Have you ever felt stuck in an unending cycle of tired with no rest in sight? If you’re a mom, yes. If you’re past the age of mandatory nap times, probably. Chris and I had THE BEST DATE NIGHT EVERRRRR on Friday night. We were celebrating a new season of life. God making ways for us in ministry that are incredible. We chatted about the ups and down we’d been through since we got married while we drove to the restaurant. While we parked, Chris said, “But you know what’s different about this season? For the first time, we’re not doing it alone.” It was the perfect setup. He didn’t know that I had arranged a surprise - friends were meeting us there!
That is not what this story is about. This story is about how our best night ever went so late because, even after we got home, we were so giddy from the fun that we couldn’t sleep. Bright-eyed Benjamin was ready to live his life at 5am the next morning. The other boys slept like normal humans. Benjamin and I tried to find ways to make alllllll those hours go by.
After multiple breakfasts, reading every book in the house, a dance party, and all the coffee, it was time to get outta there. I loaded up our little Jammer for Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens.
Winds had blown violently through Cape Town for the two days before that, knocking down massive trees and filling everyone’s sinus cavities with dust. We were all a little bleary eyed and stuffy from it. By the time we got to the gardens at 8:30am, Benjamin and I were both a little zombieish.
We strolled aimlessly. We hardly interacted with each other. I had in my ear buds with an unimportant book playing. He waved to ducks and people passing by. We held hands sometimes, and sometimes we didn’t. We ended up sitting on a drain grate for an hour. Benjamin caked his fingernails in dirt and dropped twigs in the holes beneath him. I sent voice notes to some friends and family, and soaked up the beauty around me. We rested our minds and bodies right there in the least glorious place you could find in that whole botanical garden.
Drain grate rest isn’t the most conventional Saturday morning rest. But it counted. We didn’t interact much, but we were beside each other. And that counted too.
If you happen to be in a season of too much, too tired, or too (fill in your feeling), I hope you can stumble into some unsuspecting rest too. We are loved by the God who is outside of time and space. He makes oceans part and paints skies with rainbows. He made everything, and then He rested. That same God can give you rest on a drain grate, toilet seat, traffic jam or wherever your feet are planted right now. Ask. He gives freely.
LOOK AT THE VIEW BEHIND HIM. Only eyes for those drain holes.
