"God Rested" by Anna Eisenberg
Anna Eisenberg
I first heard Andrew Peterson’s music in 2011. I remember because my older son Lincoln was not quite 2, and it was the beginning of the Christmas season. I began searching the internet for “advent music” because I was feeling dissatisfied with Christmas music in general. Not because Christmas music is bad, but most of it goes straight to the celebration. It’s straight to happy without a sense of waiting and longing…the aching for God to break through and make things right. This is what advent, the season leading up to Christmas is about. But in our time and place, it’s all “holly-jolly”: lights and glitter and shopping and happy, happy, happy. Even in Christian culture, it’s often all about “He’s born!” without a thought of everything that led up that point. So, I went looking for something, and I don’t remember how exactly I found it, but I came across his album, Behold the Lamb of God. It was 2011, so I couldn’t just stream it through Apple Music or Spotify, I had to take a chance and just buy it. I was so glad that I did. In it, he gets to the celebration of Jesus’s birth, but not without first taking you through a tour of Israel’s history, a tour through the difficulty that makes the joy so much better. So, I loved it right away. After this, I had to begin collecting all the albums that he had already written and then listen to anything new he came out with. His songs live in anticipation. They know what God has done and that He is good, but also acknowledge the difficulty of living in the world, all while looking forward to what is to come. Probably my favorite song from his Resurrection Letters albums is God Rested. It is about the Sabbath day between Jesus’s crucifixion and His resurrection.
I love this song because it takes you into the thoughts of those around Jesus after He died…
“So they laid their hopes away
They buried all their dreams about the kingdom he proclaimed
And they sealed them in the grave….
People are sad, confused, restless, they don’t know what to make of what has happened,
But God rested…
He worked ’til it was finished
And the seventh day, He blessed it
He said that it was good
And the seventh day He blessed it”
Such a beautiful song about the difference in perspective between us and God as we live our lives unsure of how things are working. Songs like these have been such and encouragement to me through all the years I’ve listened to them and have continued to be over the last several months as I’ve been being treated for cancer. Yes, there are many things that are difficult and I don’t know how everything is going to work out, but I know that God is working out something great through it.
Another song that I’ve found especially encouraging in this time is His Heart Beats:
“His heart beats, His blood begins to flow
Waking up what was dead a moment ago…
He breathes in, His living lungs expand
The heavy air surrounding death, turns to breath again…
It makes the very physical reality of the resurrection come alive, and reminds of Gods absolute
power over my body. If it is His good pleasure, I will be completely healed now, and if not now,
then I will be one day.”
I could go on about more songs, but the best thing about Andrew Peterson’s music is that it reminds you of Biblical truth applied to the ups and downs of life, and I am grateful for it.
