Light flickers from a candle. Aromatic and warm from the oven, I lay the braided bread on the table next to the wine and pomegranate juice, edible ornaments of gold and crimson, reminding me of the royal heritage I am apart of. I finish up the final preparations, and set the dishes on the table. It is a feast; a joyful party to celebrate what awaits.

For a whole year now our Friday nights have looked something like this. I don’t always manage to pull off an amazing meal; some nights have been simple soup or BBQ from the grill. Admittedly, even take-out has graced the table in weeks when a sudden illness has struck without warning. Some nights we fill the chairs with family or friends; other times it’s just me and the kids, four tired faces, sending a picture of our night to a dad traveling far away. There is usually a spill and always a child who makes a mess. But every Friday night we have joined millions across millennia in the longest-held tradition known to mankind: remembering the sabbath.

“Shabbat” is the Hebrew word which means “to cease” or “stop.” And for us, it began as a convicting experiment in faith. I had spent so little of my life to understanding this commandment that finds it roots on page 1 of the Bible. (Gen. 2:1-3) And yet, it’s a commandment. (Ex. 20:10) One of the famous ten, but also reiterated numerous times throughout the stories of the Torah, specifically spoken about in the Prophets, and it was a major source of contention in Jesus’ ministry. So if the Bible has so much to say about this event that has been happening weekly since time began, why had I paid it so little attention? Our family embarked on a journey to learn how and why to remember sabbath. And now a year later, what I have learned has been the last thing I expected to take away.

I expected to enjoy rest. I envisioned a busy Friday of rushing about, finishing my usual work before Saturday, planning a great meal that would provide leftovers, and then waking on Saturday to a relaxing, slow-paced day off. I expected Saturdays to be refreshing family time, to learn to let go of the things that are so mundane, and just rest in the Lord. In my own mind, this is what I wanted to learn; what I wanted shabbat to be for us. But this isn’t what happened. (And at first, I thought I was doing it wrong!) Of course, it’s nice enough to have the mundane chores done. There is a relaxing freedom in just picking something fun to do without worrying about the leftover work from the week I failed to finish. A break is nice. Important, even.

Rest may be what I intended to seek, but rest is not what I found. Instead, something much greater penetrated our home; something far beyond my own Americanized, religious idea of a “day of rest.”

Sabbath–the ceasing of creating–created something within us: watchful preparation and eager anticipation. To get all the ordinary done in six days takes careful planning. It takes an attention to every hour I have in the days leading up to Friday evening. In order to be ready, I must work diligently to accomplish the tasks before me. To plan each day carefully, seeing that not only our physical work is done but that the spiritual work is being tended to as well. That the climate of my home is Edenistic; that those who step across my threshold–be it that of my home or my heart–are cared for, welcomed, and nourished. In preparing for shabbat each week, we have mindfully practiced preparing our hearts for the Kingdom.

Completing the physical work serves as the symbol; it points to the greater reality I have as a follower of Jesus: preparing the Way for my King.

And in this preparation, I find that my heart has grown restless for this return. In our efforts to get things done before Friday evening, we begin to long for Friday evening. We anticipate the closeness it brings within our home; the way it unites us. We look forward to breaking the warm bread and clinking glasses of wine, and what this reminds us of. Who it reminds us of. Eagerly, we anticipate the time in which we will be in our ultimate family, around the most lavish of all tables, celebrating goodness and and resting in truth.

Shabbat is not merely a day of rest; it is a unique marker of both an ending and a beginning. When we usher in shabbat on Friday evenings, we are kindling the light–the life (John 1: 4)–that comes from the beauty of pronouncing our six days of work very good.  It is both the finale of goodness and the prelude to renewal.

By seeking to honor the sabbath, I have been given the most beautiful reminder of what the sabbath represents. It is not simply a day off; it is a pattern of divine footprints given to us in order that we may image our Creator in creating good in His world and our souls through the creative power of the Spirit and His Word (Gen. 1: 2-3), and when the work is done, entering a time of ultimate renewal and restoration. This is our family heritage. The Sabbath is the Gospel; it is made for us (Mark 2:27). To teach us to live in the Kingdom; to remind us of our real Family, and to bring us to the place where work and rest collide: supreme delight in the very good.

If you hold back your foot on Shabbat, from pursuing your own interests on my Holy day; if you call Shabbat a delight; Adonai’s holy day, worth honoring, then honor it…I will make you ride on the heights of the land and feed you with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob. Is. 58:13-14