It’s my last full day of vacation. Tomorrow we have to pack up, go home and get resettled in. Then on Tuesday it’s back to the ‘grind’. Aside from watching the Emmys tonight I’m feeling rather down and depressed.

I often wonder if Jesus ever took a vacation. In my humble opinion he certainly deserved one. This after starving for forty days and nights in the desert, being tempted by the devil, preaching the Beatitudes, feeding five thousand people (and later four thousand people), raising Lazarus from the dead, healing a bunch of people of whatever maladies they were inflicted with and giving us a new commandment to love one another (This is by far the most important commandment He ever gave us. One we so often forget). Whew! If Jesus were walking on Earth today where would he vacation, South of the Border, SC or the Hamptons? Or better yet a little cabin called Wac-Zip in Stoddartsville. This is a place I think he would have found a true refuge from His daily challenges. It’s a place where you can sit on the front porch with a glass of wine (remember His first miracle was changing water into wine) watch the Lehigh River down below, listen to the water falls in the distance all the while a humming bird is hovering just five feet from your face. This vacation more than anything has given me a chance to STOP everything around me. It’s been a vacation where I’ve not remembered what day of the week it is, what time it is or if the dry-cleaning has been picked up. Whether you identify yourself as an environmentalist as I myself do or just enjoy nature, when was the last time any of us just stopped everything we were doing to enjoy what God has given us. Aside from His greatest gift of dying for our sins and giving us a new commandment to love one another I think His next greatest gift is nature. I know we are all busy with our careers, families and kids. But the next time you get the chance, take a drive out into nature, shut your cell phone off and just be still. If you wish, have a bottle of wine or whatever beverage you prefer and just watch and listen to what God has given us in nature. I am sure Jesus this did many times when he needed a break.

Matthew C. Thomas-Malani

August 29, 2010