Come To Me

“Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30.

The other night my mother gave an inspirational speech at the CEF (Child’s Evangelism Fellowship) Banquet regarding her journey through the death of my sister. Her speech included the story of Footprints in the Sand wherein lays an exchange of a conversation between our Father and one of His children. It is the beautiful story of questioning “Where were you, God? I only saw one set of footprints in the sand when looking over the course of my life.” His response was “When you saw one set, those were mine as I was carrying you.”

I remember when traveling through the nightmare of my daughter’s drug addiction my parents showed up at my house one day with a gift. I opened that gift to find a framed cross stitch of this story. Over the next couple of years I would take that gift and pin it close to my heart and through my pleadings to God cry over that picture. I would raise that framed promise up to Him as if reminding Him in case He had forgotten.

Fast forward 10 years as my dad was diagnosed in the last stage of cancer. On Christmas Eve as he opened his gift from me and Bruce tears filled my eyes as I remembered the nights I had cried over this picture. I told Daddy that it was his turn to pull this promise close to his heart and it now hangs in their den.

A yoke is “a frame designed to fit across somebody’s shoulders with balanced loads suspended at each end.” Our yoke of burden was designed to be carried on the shoulders of our Savior, not ourselves.

Entering into God’s rest will occur when we exit out of our own will.