While We’re Asleep

…it is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to his good purpose. (Philippians 2:13, CSB)

Wendell Berry eloquently gets at the dance between God’s work and ours, his grace and our rest.

Whatever is foreseen in joy
Must be lived out from day to day,
Vision held open in the dark
By our ten thousand days of work.
Harvest will fill the barn; for that
The hand must ache, the face must sweat.

And yet no leaf or grain is filled
By work of ours; the field is tilled
And left to grace. That we may reap,
Great work is done while we're asleep.

When we work well, a Sabbath mood
Rests on our day, and finds it good.

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Some immediate responses as this poem hit my soul:

It can’t be just about what is revealed as possible (“whatever is foreseen in joy”). A vision of what could be will only be brought about if “lived out from day to day.”

I love how he comes at that another way — we can look out at a field bursting with fruitfulness, the harvest is there, right before us. But it has to be harvested to truly be a harvest, “the hand must ache, the face must sweat.” As someone who’s done manual labor, nothing feels better than standing back and seeing what your hard work and sweat has accomplished!

And yet…“no leaf or grain is filled by work of ours.” We are not the Creator, but the created, and we constantly need the Creator to work in us to will and to work according to his good purpose for the world and all within it. “The field is tilled and left to grace. That we may reap, great work is done while we’re asleep.”

How humbling! How gloriously humbling, that we need God, who never sleeps or slumbers in his always awake and active protection and help of his children. That the greatest work is done while we’re asleep! Yahweh will protect us from all harm, he will protect our lives, he will protect our coming and going both now, and forever (Psalm 121).

Huh.

“When we work well, a Sabbath mood
Rests on our day, and finds it good.”

Yes, and very amen, in Jesus’ name.