The Creation - Day 7

In Genesis 2:2-3 it reads:

"And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made."

The creation is now finished and God rested on the seventh day. He not only rested, but he blessed it and sanctified it. What does it mean to sanctify? When I "googled" the word sanctify at dictionary.com it said:

to make holy; set apart as sacred; consecrate
to purify or free from sin
to entitle to reverence or respect
to make productive of or conducive to spiritual blessing

I love these definitions. I believe that the 7th Day was a day for us to not only to rest from our labors of the world, but to set it apart to worship God, rededicate ourselves in our quest to follow after our Savior and replenish our spirits to be able to endure life's trials. To me it is like heading to the gas station and refueling. If we are low on gas and do not refuel our car will eventually stop working. So is life if we continue full steam ahead without stopping to refuel ourselves and remember our great creator who gave us life, we will stop and run out of "gas" as well. It is a great blessing to have one day out of 7 where I can stop my labors of work and rejuvenate my body and spirit.

We now have finished our story of the creation, but our individual stories have now just begun. The world is prepared, created and our first parents are put on the earth. Elder Russell M. Nelson said,

"Grand as it is, planet Earth is part of something even grander—that great plan of God. Simply summarized, the earth was created that families might be."

I love how he sums up what the whole purpose for the creation was intended and that was that "families might be." I am so grateful to a loving Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ who created not only this world, but gave us families to love, to learn from and to find great joy as we come to an understanding of who we really are. There was a saying attached to the front door of the home I grew up in that said:

"Never part without loving words to think of during your absence. It may be that you will not meet again in life."- Jean Paul Richter

May we take a moment this day to reflect on the blessing of family relations and embrace those we love.