Last week I had my 49th Birthday. I was feeling pretty excited because I worked out that 49 was 7x7.
This was significant to me because 7 means a full, complete cycle. It is the number of days in a week. 'And on the 7th day God rested.' A day without any work. No cooking, cleaning, running errands or ferrying kids around to weekend activities! I try and remain at home without venturing out on my day of rest. Hence my Sabbath is usually a Saturday and not a Sunday which is busy and social. My personal preference is to replenish my inner energy reserves with reading and music and country walks.
Isaiah 30:15 - In returning and rest you shall be made whole, in quietness and trust shall be your strength.
This cycle of 7 is also followed by the Old Testament guidelines for farming the land. In the 7th year it is advised that the land should rest. (Leviticus 25:4) Give the soil a year off. A year of rest allows the soil to replenish itself of certain minerals. It allows debris to build up and break down. It allows nutrients to be returned to the soil. Interestingly humility comes from the Latin word 'humilis' - meaning 'of the earth.' It is a wonderfully humble act to let go and trust the Creators design to bring healing & wholeness by remaining at rest.
So what does 49, 7 cycles of 7 years mean but a full and complete cycle of life over and completed. In fact the bible calls it a Jubilee Year. ( Leviticus 25: 8 - 10)
Leviticus 25:12 It will be a jubilee year for you, and you must keep it holy.
The scripture passage goes on to say that as you enter the 50th year, this is a season to return to your roots. Go home. Be in the land where your family comes from. In this year it is advised that no sowing or reaping should be done. It is a year of rest. All debts are to be demolished. Land is to be returned to its ancestral owners. Prisoners are set free. Families are to be reunited. It is to be marked as HOLY unto the Lord.
A year of rest. WOW!
For my Jubilee year I could take the whole year off and allocate myself a Sabbatical. Taking time out to recharge our batteries and rekindle our passion for life is a principal many professions embrace. It takes a few months & up to a whole year for this kind of rest to take effect.
Since I have already had my Sabbatical quite recently I won't be taking another year off just yet. I have some wonderful people who rely on me and I'm not about to give up on my decision to take care of one of the issues God cares about most of all -
James 1:27 Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit and help care for the orphans and widows in their trouble ...
Another aspect of Jubilee = Debts demolished and prisoners set free. How do I re-enact all of that? I think it was Bono who pointed out that if we took this financial Biblical advice seriously we could give third world countries a massive economical jump start, wipe out their huge debt and free them up to start with a clean slate. (It might also be a breath of fresh air for our overloaded prison system!)
But how does this apply to my life? I don't have any debt. No student loans to pay off. No car payment. Not even a mortgage on a house. I am debt free.
I guess it could apply to debts of un forgiveness. Are there any prisoners in my life who need releasing? I don't think so but I will keep thinking about that one.
It strikes me that Jubilee is about restoring WHOLENESS - SHALOM. Nothing missing. Nothing broken. Nothing lacking. It is about a clean fresh start. Jubilee is another expression of God's wisdom. Letting someone bigger than us look after us and worry about the details.
It is yet another outworking of Jesus as perfectly described in Luke 4:18 ( Isaiah 61: 1&2)
The spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor, He has sent me to proclaim freedom to prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free - ( to send forth as delivered those who are oppressed, downtrodden, bruised, crushed and broken down by calamity. ) - To bind up the broken hearted.
My Jubilee will continue to be about bringing wholeness & peace & restoration where I live. Every day when I rock up at work and love 3 kids who had their Mum stolen from them by cancer I am binding up the broken hearted. I am His arms around three little humans who have been bruised, crushed and broken down by calamity.
This year I decided that I needed a theme colour for my Jubilee so I chose green. There are a few reasons for this. One is that my mother loved green. Another is that I love green. I have some vague memories of being very happy in a green swimsuit somewhere on the continent of Africa. I can't recall which country I was living in or how old I was, but I remember a green swimsuit and it stirs in me feelings of nostalgia.
So I bought myself a sexy French green swimsuit for my birthday! I also purchased a green jumper in memory of the one Mum used to wear. I found a green dress for sale in Anthropologie, £126 knocked down to £25. (BARGAIN. I didn't need much persuading to buy that one!) Then my cousin sent me some Jade earrings. And my sister and nephews without even being aware of this green theme rocked up at my birthday breakfast in green and bought me a pair of green secateurs !!
So we are off the starting line on my Jubilee year with a green theme.
I am still pondering how to mark the HOLY unto the Lord part of this year. Part of me wants to spend a few days in silence just smiling at God. Part of me wants to do 49 acts of random kindness to mark my 49 years on earth.
49 random acts of kindness - I started this on day one by speaking to a sweet elderly lady at the post office who obviously just needed to speak to another human being because she was so lonely on her own at home. I think she also had a touch of dementia. We talked about her pond and why the carp had all died and she blamed it on the poachers in the woods and not the weed killer leaching off the lawn! I really think she needs to wear her glasses when she goes out for a walk, it is possible that she has mistaken badgers for poachers.
In my second act of kindness I tried to push another lady along in her wheelchair which looked stuck in the mud to me. I was out jogging up a sodden country lane, a happy mix of mud and horse manure. She appeared to have become stranded in the boggy mire while passing another dog walker. But I was mistaken. She rejected my effort to help. Turns out that her wheelchair is a 4x4 version with off road tyres and a motor and she was just chatting to a neighbour, not stuck as I had reasoned. Getting dragged uphill and away from her friend was not what she wanted!! (Note to self - Make less assumptions, ask more questions & wear your glasses when out jogging.)
At this point I gave up on my 49 random acts of kindness deal. It felt like me trying to impress myself, God and everyone else. It felt like a 'get further in heaven' card with your kindness points. It didn't feel like HOLY unto the Lord.
It's a shame because I had a long list - I thought I might write a letter to the Queen saying 'Thank-you for putting up with us all.' I wanted to pay for a strangers shopping bill in the supermarket. I was going to give blood and possibly a kidney. Maybe write a letter to someone I have never met who is in prison because they are a Christian. Then there was the desire to sit outside Sainsburies on Guildford High Street and talk to the homeless man and his dog who camp out there and I had added 'Clean an exhausted parents house ' to my list.
I expect I will do all of the above, but not because I am trying to tick these items off a list.
With this Jubilee emphasis I'm also not sure how to return to the land of my ancestors. 'Your ancestral property.' (Lev 25:13) On Dad's side that is Devon. On Mum's side it is London. So instead I came here to Farley Green where my family have lived the longest, 35 years since 1985.
I love it here. It smells of hay, sweet fermenting apples and woodsmoke. I especially like the forest. I find the woods very alive. They are atmospheric and magical. They 'remember' as someone once commented. I have watched individual trees grow and they have watched over me. I walk the old animal trails and tread the new paths worn down and woven amidst the feet of these trees. ( Even the swing in the photo above has memories engraved into wood with the names of 4 local boys carved into the seat edge. 'Simon, Teddy, Jono & Alfie.' )
The trees look after each other. They send out signals about the weather and share water and nutrients. They warn each other of disease. You think it is all going on above ground but it is actually happening below ground. A network of roots and rootlets that speak to each other. That whisper words of solace and love and fellowship.
(For more on the beauty of how trees live in community - I recommend the Patagonia Film 'treeline' :- an elegant, creative & evocative documentary.)
Recently we had 2 serious storms come crashing through England. I saw many trees down and other trees snapped by the strong winds. It struck me that only trees with deep roots can keep standing when they are being drenched in rain and the soil all around their feet is soft and waterlogged. Those with shallow roots are soon uprooted. Those with rotten pieces get broken and shredded. The wind cleanses them of all the weak branches. And the trees which refused to bend under the wind were just snapped in two.
Flexibility, lack of rot and deep roots! That is what the trees have taught me. And community. Don't try and do it alone. Care for each other through seasons of growth and rest. And in the end it will be your Creator who has the last word. True 'humility - of the earth.'
Exodus 14:14 The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace and remain at rest.
I am grateful to Father God who does all the hard work for us. He understands the cycles of living and dying. He understands our need for real rest. True Sabbath & Sabbatical. A Jubilee year to return to our roots. To be with family. To wipe the slate clean.
" I dedicate this Jubilee year to you, Father, Son & Holy Spirit.
May it be HOLY UNTO THE LORD. "
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