Torch, Summer 1987

by David R. Mains, director of Chapel of the Air radio broadcast originating in Wheaton , Illinois. This article wast-aken from his pamphlet "The Best Vacation You ' ve Ever Had. " Tiie Be1t l'flctttlon Yo11'11e E11er Hfld I Vacation. I remember well the last day of school before summer vacation when I was growing up. Running out of the building we would shout (from a safe distance), "No more classes, no more books , no more teacher's dirty looks! " In retrospect , I wonder what the teachers back inside were shouting among themselves 1 For most of us adults in the work force, those months of vacation from school have been reduced to a few weeks off from work, but the anticipation is still there. We dream of the perfect vacation: a favorite trout stream in Montana, a trip to Disney World with the chil– dren, two weeks of beautiful Hawaii, a cabin by a secluded lake, just some time to putter around the house with no outside pressures. What does God think about vacations? Had Jesus lived longer, would He have worked out a vacation sched– ule for the twelve? Is a luxury cruise in the Caribbean less Christian a vacation than a trip to the Holy Land? 8 Is there anything in Scripture about vacations? They are mentioned in labor contracts, travel magazines, slick tour brochures, but not the Scriptures -- or are they? In Scripture God shows Himself to be quite interested in matters such as vacations. Granted, that precise word isn't used, but I believe there is a basic principle in the Bible. For example, Leviticus 23 lists the appointed Old Testament feasts of the Lord. Weekly, there was to be a sabbath rest from labor and a time of REcreating. ''Six days shall work be done, but on the Sabbath, you shall do no work.' ' Sometimes I'm afraid we get the feeling that God 's sabbath plan called for a dour legalism. By the time of Christ's appearance, the sabbath had become just that rather than what God had originally intended. Christ demonstrated the true spirit of the sabbath and