You wake up today and remember you have been signed up to attend a ladies’ function at a place called God’s Rest.  You have been told to dress casual, but you linger in your closet wondering what in the world that means for a place called God’s Rest.  If God is resting, what is he wearing?  You arrive at this rather large blue house on the corner of two fairly busy streets in the middle of a wandering neighborhood with  a golf course and a lake.  You wonder immediately, “What is a bed and breakfast called God’s Rest doing in the middle of an upper class American neighborhood?”  You walk up to the front door surrounded by shrubs and blooming flowers and have to dodge a bird who has made it’s nest just above the door in a decorative floral piece.  In fact, you are asked to go to the side door so as not to disturb the mother bird having her own women’s day out at God’s Rest.  When you enter the side door, you are immediately met by a huge dining table that has been decorated to the hilt with place settings and centerpieces.  As you walk by the table, you notice a place card with you name printed on it in fancy calligraphy.  You try to glance inconspicuously to the left and right side of your place setting to see the other place cards and acquire the names of the ladies that will be sitting around you.  You sigh a little in relief as you recognize a name.  Then, your attention is caught by the tantalizing aroma of coffee in the morning and you follow your nose to a lovely patio furnished with white wicker furniture.  Ha – and there it is, the coffee, and next to it is juice, pastries and a breakfast casserole.  You look around and see a couple of other women have already helped themselves so you decide to dig in.  You happen to glance to your left and notice the back yard with the delightful winding walkway that leads to a patio table and chairs, a porch swing and an archway with yet another bird’s nest in it.  The place is alive with greenery and color.  It looks inviting and since others have gathered out there you decide to join them.  Immediately you are met with the sweet aroma coming from some large trumpet like flower hanging from a limb next to the table and swing.  You sit down to eat and make acquaintances, and, just about the time you finish eating and you have most of the ladies names down, you are called into the living room.  Your choice of seating ranges from a large wrap around couch, a chaise lounge, a chair with an ottoman, a few side chairs and a table with chairs around it.  As you are deciding where to sit, you watch the bolder ones hurry up to get the places where you can put you feet up.  The shyer ones tend to hold back and take what is left over.  Then, for the next hour or so, a woman with a curly blond updo introduces herself and opens up her Bible.  She invites you to join her has she shares revelation she has gleaned from scripture or from a book she has been reading.  About 45 to 50 minutes into this time of Bible sharing, you hear muffled sounds from the kitchen and, as you surmise a few pot lids have lifted or an oven door has been opened, your nostrils pick up a tantalizing scent of lunch.  From that point on it is difficult to concentrate on what is being said because you keep wondering what you are going to get to taste next.  Your mind thinks, “If it is anything as good as breakfast; you are in for a treat.”  Finally, the lovely blond updo lady states it is lunch time and asks us to pray.  We move to the large table and are just about seated when a man – whom she introduces as her husband – comes into the dining room presenting you with several choices of beverages for lunch.  He returns with the drinks and does a fairly good job remembering who ordered what.  A few minutes later he comes in expertly carrying a tray with genuine hospitality and places before you this intricate soup cradle from which he scoops out a delicious tasting home made soup.  Immediately, those women who like to cook are asking about recipes.  Those of us who could care less about cooking, on the other hand, are concentrating more on eating.  What else do you get, how about some salad, or breads, or crackers, or cheeses, and don’t forget the dessert.  You get two choices and those of us who are not shy ask for both.  This request is met with a smile and immediate provision.  After the lunch is over and you feel like you have been nurtured, pampered, cherished and loved, you re-group in the living room for another session of teaching and discussion about the things of God.  This teaching time is interspersed with 20 to 30 minute segments where you break into smaller groups and a different woman leads the small group into personal discussion and application of what has just been taught in the large group.  At this point, a few of the women may find themselves weeping and sharing personal pain.  They will be listened to, validated and prayed for.  Then, sometime in the early afternoon, it is ‘tea time’.  For those of us who have never had tea served to them, it is a little awkward knowing just what to do or how to carry stuff or even how to hold your ‘pinky,’ as you drink from this delicately designed tea cup with its own matching saucer.  There are several choices of tea and some weird little cookies they call biscuits.  Some of them have a tasty jelly you can spread on them.  If you are lucky, there may even be something with chocolate.  Tea may be followed by a few more minutes of Bible sharing and praying and then it is time to go home.  You look at your watch and wonder where the time has gone.  You sigh with the realization of how relaxed you are, thinking back, trying to remember the last time you felt so peaceful and so cherished.  There is a mild hesitation as you don’t want to leave without hugging a few of the women you have met and without expressing gratitude to the amazing couple that just gave you an entire day of their lives – a day filled with the things of God – food, fellowship, compassion, revelation, prayer and peace.  As you drive home, you try to recap the day and memorize the things that spoke to you the most.  You reach over and touch a cutting the lady in the curly blond updo gave you from her garden, thinking about where you will plant it and if it has any chance of survival knowing who its caretaker will be.  Oh yes, and then you think back about some of the ladies who were there.  You see, some of them were from a ministry called Teen Challenge.  Who are these ladies, these are ladies who may have been wounded physically and emotionally, lived on the streets, trapped by drugs or alcohol, financially stripped and who have probably never had the experience of being cherished and pampered like they were today.  This makes you smile and say thank you God for a place like God’s Rest, for a lady like the one with the blonde curly updo and a man like the one who can carry large trays of food without spilling them, and who even seems to enjoy doing so.  This day has just given you a real life experience of what it is like to be with people who follow the great commandment found in: 

 Matthew 22: 37-39 

“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” 

And oh yes, you get to hold on to the memory of this day because when you walk out on to your own patio, you see the cutting that was given to you by the lady in the blond curly updo.  It is still alive and is actually growing.  You can’t wait for the day when one of those fantastic smelling flowers that look a lot like a trumpet will bloom and fragrance you entire patio.