He frowned at Momma, and then realized he and Lila Mae were the only people still standing.
“Brothers and sisters,” Pastor Knowlton said, and Trap hurried to squeeze himself into the corner of the pew and leave room for Lila Mae.
Thankfully, there wasn’t much room for her beside him, and he turned sideways and lifted his arm around her, ignoring the way his mother watched him with narrowed eyes.
What was he supposed to do? He could’ve had her sit on his lap, and Trap actually smiled just thinking about how Momma would react tothat.
He leaned down, nearly touching the brim of his cowboy hat to Lila Mae’s temple. “I thought you said you weren’t coming,” he whispered.
“Well, I got things cleaned up faster than I thought,” she whispered back. “And I figured I might as well come, instead of puttering around the sanctuary. Sometimes I need a break from it.”
Trap understood that, and he kneaded her a little bit closer, glad when she cuddled into his chest and then looked toward the pastor. She wasn’t wearing a hat today, though Trap had seen her pin them to her hair in the past and sit on the end of a pew by herself here in the chapel.
They hadn’t sat together at church previous to this, and his pulse echoed through his body in a strange way. Bringing a woman to church was abigdeal in his family, and he honestly wasn’t sure he was ready for it.
He told himself he was sitting next to Lila Mae, and it was no different than taking her to a movie, or piling into a booth with her at a restaurant.
“…the creation,” Pastor Knowlton was saying when Trap finally got his ears to focus on the right thing. “Now, the creation is at the very beginning of the Bible.” The pastor smiled out to everyone. “So a lot of you have probably read it many times. Today, I ask if you’ve everstudiedit and really thought about each word, and what it means. To have these six, glorious creative periods of time, which, in our own human temporal understanding, we’ve called days.”
He proceeded to talk about what God created on the first day, and then the second, and then the third. Yes, Trap had read these scriptures before. Pastor Knowlton always spoke in a calm, kind, powerful voice that brought the spirit to the room.
Today was no different, and when he finished reading about how God had created male and female, and then pronounced thework “very good,” Pastor Knowlton looked up again and pulled off his reading glasses.
“You’ll note, my friends, that He did not say ‘very good’ when He finished creating the fishes of the sea, or separating the light from the dark. Those things weregood, but God creating us in His own image and giving us the potential to become like Him wasverygood. We are His children. YouareHis son, or youareHis daughter, and He gives each of us the very life we breathe.”
Trap’s insides started to tingle, something that only happened when he felt absolute truth ringing through him.
“And now I wish to focus the rest of my sermon on a part of the creation that I believe is overlooked, and that is the seventh day.”
Trap was suddenly very glad he hadn’t skipped church on this, the seventh day, when he knew he should keep the Sabbath Day holy.
“God gave us the gift of rest,” Pastor Knowlton said. “And He provided for us the example of how to live it by demonstrating it Himself—because He rested on the seventh day.
“This is a principle that comes from our very existence.” He swept one arm wide. “God commanded us to rest before there was organized religion, before we had the scriptures, before the Law of Moses.
“It is a perpetual covenant, woven into the fabric of existence, and He wants you to have a respite from the chaotic and loud calls of the world around you. Youneedthis seventh day of rest, my brothers and my sisters, as it will provide a safe haven for you mentally, physically, and spiritually, to rest from your cares and from your labors and find ways to build the relationships that God wants you to have: with friends, with family members, and ultimately with Him.”
He smiled and consulted his notes for a brief moment. Trap needed more time to absorb his words and really let them seepinto his heart, to examine them and how he could incorporate them into his life moving forward.
But Pastor Knowlton didn’t give him that time. “Now, I’m not going to give you a talk on what you can and can’t do on the Sabbath Day. I think every child of God in this room has the ability to get down on their knees and ask the Lord if the activities they’re doing on Sunday are appropriate or not.
“But you can start with some of these questions: Are you allowing yourself to rest from your worldly cares? God rested on the seventh day. Do you think you need more time than He used to create the world, organize matter, and set it all where it needed to go? You need more time than He had?”
Pastor Knowlton shook his head. “I don’t think so, brothers and sisters. And I think this principle of rest, thisgiftGod has given you, should not be overlooked. Ask yourselves: am I utilizing the gifts God has given me? Am I taking advantage of the opportunity to rest? God has already given you permission to close the doors on business, ignore your email, save the text messages for Monday morning, and set aside anything that weighs you down and pulls you away from Him.
“Now, the other six days of the week, we have to deal with those things, and Heexpectsus to do so, but this glorious seventh day should be restful, my friends. How are you using this opportunity? Have you thanked God lately for His Sabbath Day and His permission to rest?”
Trap sat there, totally enthralled, as he’d never given much thought to rest being a gospel principle. He felt God speaking to him through Pastor Knowlton, and the message sunk straight into his heart.
The lists of supplies he needed to order could wait until tomorrow morning. So could the emails he hadn’t gotten to on Friday night, as well as his check-in with Jason and Sawyer.Heck, they already met every Monday morning, and Trap didn’t need to take hours on Sunday to get ready for it.
He deserved a day of rest.
As the pastor finished up and turned the time back over to his sister and her husband, Cactus and Willa Glover, who ran the choir, Trap found himself with the energy to stand. After all, now attending church would be the most draining thing he would be doing that day. He clapped along and even sang when invited to do so.
Lila Mae seemed to have the light in her eyes that they were singing about, and when the song ended, she giggled as she put her hands against his chest and leaned into him.
Trap grinned down at her and turned toward the end of the row as the meeting had ended.
