LIFE'S RESTS
BY: JOHN RUSKIN 1819-1900
There is no music in a rest, but there is the making of music in it. In our whole life melody the music is broken off here and there by ''rests,'' and we foolishly think we have come to the end of the tune. God sends a time of forced leisure, sickness, disappointed plans, frustrated efforts, and makes a sudden pause in the choral hymn of our lives, and we lament that our voices must be silent, and our part missing in the music which ever goes up to the ear of the Creator. How does the musician read the rest? See him beat the time with unvarying count, and catch up the next note true and steady, as if no breaking place had come between.
Not without design does God write the music of our lives. But be it ours to learn the tune, and not be dismayed at the ''rests.''
They are not to be slurred over nor to be omitted, nor to destroy the melody, nor to change the keynote. If we look up, God Himself will beat the time for us. With the eye on Him, we shall strike the next note full and clear.
--John Ruskin, the greatest Victorian, bar Victoria, was an artist, scientist, poet, environmentalist, philosopher, and the pre-eminent art critic of his time
And, the copy that I have adds the phrase on the very end, "Because we rested."
To me, this is powerful. I don't like to "rest". Sometimes, I think the rest would be a lot easier if I only knew how long it would be. I don't like the uncertainty of not knowing when the rest will end and the next note come.
But the most comforting part about the rest? Knowing that it IS God Himself beating the timing of my life. Knowing that He knows the music already, and is preparing me to "strike the next note full and clear."
