Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” 

John 21:12 (NIV)

Despite the fact that we are made in God's image and likeness, the more our lives are filled with busyness, the more unlikeness we start to show, and the less we will resemble Him. It is only through making spaces in our everyday activities and resting in the truth of who we are in Christ (Ephesians 4:3) that we repeatedly return to a healthy sense of self and identity.

Right from the beginning of Scripture, rest is a gift, not a reward for hard work. And the Sabbath serves as a sacred reminder that we are made to rest in God and to find our satisfaction in Him alone. When we learn to live in this divinely ordained rhythm of rest and work, we will develop a readiness to respond to God at any given moment. In other words, rest makes us receptive to God’s “interruptions” and “suddenlies” and embrace them with open arms.

When we fail to rest consistently and rest well in our souls, we will dismiss these unforeseen God-given interruptions and inconveniences and fail to perceive them as a part of the life God plans for us in Christ.

Rest, after all, is a holy and purposeful interruption to life, during which we return ourselves to God and resist the temptation to be busy and to be seen busy. Jesus was never so busy that He lost touch with the Father, and it is because of this intimate connection that Jesus could recognise and participate in what God is evidently doing. Despite the fact that His life was punctuated with interruptions, Jesus never became frustrated or upset by them. Instead, He sees those interruptions as timely opportunities to see people as God does and to care for them as God does.

When Jesus prepared breakfast for His friends, He wasn't simply feeding their bellies; He was also filling their hearts with an incredible love for Him, who loved them first and then gave them the mission to spread His love throughout the world. Thus, rest is not just for our Lord to revive our identity and rejuvenate our souls, but also for Him to recommission us to faithfully follow Him into the world.