Unforced rhythms of Grace

Rummage Sale season has finally started here in the Northland. Despite freezing winds and snow falling this late in April I stopped at a church rummage sale after dropping Quartz at a school event.

For $15, I walked away with a box of hidden wealth :)

1. an old-fashioned candle holder with intricately shaped leaves and twigs
2. a wooden yoke
3. Books!

• Mandala by Pearl Buck
• Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
• The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd (hardback, brand new)
  
• The Burden is Light! by Eugenia Price
• an old Sotheby's catalog
• a WWII encyclopedia (for Electrum)
• a set of American Heritage books with wonderful illustrations
  

Before I had left the sale, 3 people stopped and asked me what the yoke was. It is of course, not life sized.....it is a decorative piece, about 1 1/2 feet across. The moment I saw it I thought of "My yoke is easy and My burden is light". I plan to hang it beneath a wonderful painting that Anonimo's Aunt Maria gave us....a painting of two men on a cart being pulled by oxen yoked together.

When I saw the book by Eugenia Price , it seemed that a theme was forming around my morning. I knew that I recognized her name, but could not remember exactly what she wrote. This book "My Burden is Light!" caught my eye because of the subtitle: The Autobiography of a Transformed Pagan.

As I forced myself to rest today to try and get over this cold I have, I read the entire book. It is the story of a woman who lived for self and found the burden too much to bear....and then Christ came and took her breath away...and her burden away. His burden is indeed light.

Abruptly Jesus broke into prayer: "Thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. You've concealed your ways from sophisticates and know-it-alls, but spelled them out clearly to ordinary people. Yes, Father, that's the way you like to work." Jesus resumed talking to the people, but now tenderly. "The Father has given me all these things to do and say. This is a unique Father-Son operation, coming out of Father and Son intimacies and knowledge. No one knows the Son the way the Father does, nor the Father the way the Son does. But I'm not keeping it to myself; I'm ready to go over it line by line with anyone willing to listen. "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me--watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly.

The Message by Eugene Peterson

What an incredible gift....to be allowed to walk yoked with Him in the unforced rhythms of grace.