With the Birds and the Breeze: Reimagining Rest

Visio Divina —Divine Seeing

In Moonrise, Hernandez, Ansel Adams captures the tension between light and dark, life and death, earth and sky. The moon is rising—silent, full, constant—over a desert village where white crosses wait in stillness. There are no people in the frame, yet presence fills the air. It is both ending and beginning. A perfect place to pause.

1. Gaze Use the image provided. Let your eyes rest on the moon. Notice its fullness. Its steadiness. Notice what is illuminated—and what stays in shadow.

2. Breathe Slow your breath. Let it match the stillness of the image. Let your body settle.

3. Reflect

· What draws your attention in this moment?

· Where do you see God in the light?

· Where do you sense God in the darkness?

Let the moon speak to you. It does not rush. It does not hustle. It waxes. It wanes. It disappears. It reappears. It is faithful, not efficient. And we—especially those of us who cycle—were made in this same rhythm. Biologically, men cycle through their hormones every 24 hours. Like the sun—fast, bright, daily. But women? We cycle like the moon. Over 28 to 32 days. Our energy rises and falls. Our clarity sharpens and softens. We are designed for phases.

Yet we live in a world that only honors the sun. Productivity. Same every day. Push through. Show up. We schedule our lives by months, meetings, and machines. Not by moonlight, or tides, or truth.

Even our calendar is off. There are 13 moon cycles a year, but we use a 12-month solar calendar. Why? Because capitalism and empire needed something predictable—linear, controllable, taxable. So we traded the sacred spiral of time for a factory  lock. But God built us differently. God made time with breath. With mystery. With rest baked in. That’s what Sabbath was for. That’s what Jesus modeled when he withdrew. We don’t rest because we’re weak. We rest because we’re divine.

 Ask Yourself

· What phase of the moon are you in right now?

· Are you waxing—gaining energy and vision?

· Are you waning—called to slow down and soften?

· Are you full—ready to offer something into the world?

· Are you hidden—needing sacred rest and stillness to renew?

How might this awareness change how you speak to yourself? How might it shape how you interact with others—especially those whose rhythms don’t match yours?

God didn’t say, “I’ll give you a schedule.” God didn’t say, “I’ll give you a system.” God said: Presence. And Rest. In the wilderness. Even Jesus honored the pauses. The phases. The in-between places. He didn’t see stillness as a break from real life. He saw it as real life.

Rest with us this weekend for worship at 9:30 am in person or online.

 Prayer: God of moonrise and mystery, help us unlearn the lies that keep us exhausted. Help us stop measuring our worth by our output. Restore our trust in cycles, in stillness, in enoughness. Remind us we are not machines. We are yours. May we rest as the moon rests—faithful, changing, and whole. Amen.