Ice Cream Makers and Sabbath Rest

Two weekends ago, I commented to a friend that I would love to have a hand-crank ice cream maker. My family owns a small electric unit, but the concept of making ice cream purely by hand seemed magical. That next week, I walked into the local thrift store. There on the shelf, it waited for me: An original Richmond Cedar Works hand-crank ice maker.

I knew that God had postured me to receive it. There was something to cause me minor concern though. I paid $6 for it. Later in the week, I found myself researching the prophetic meaning of the number six. Among other things, it can mean “Human labor contrasted with God’s rest” and “Rest (six full days bring us to seven : rest)”. There was an immediate connection between the concept of human labor and laboring to make ice cream, but I could not reconcile that with the belief that God had blessed me with the unit.

On the following Sunday, we mixed up the ice cream custard base, purchased ice, and got to business. We cranked and cranked and cranked. We figured that the ice cream would be ready when the crank was too hard to push. Sadly, the plastic beater broke in half. No more ice cream maker.

I was deeply confused by this. How could God bless me with a hard to find item and then allow it to be so easily broken? It was only as I thought about the $6 that it came together for me: We are moving from our labors into the time of God’s Sabbath rest. What worked in those six previous days will no longer suffice on the Sabbath.

Many of us have worked hard for God. We have seen little fruit for our labors, and we have taken comfort in the sweat, tears and sacrifices that we have made for God. Now, it is the end of our labors. God is about to do something in our time that cannot be earned. It cannot be qualified for through human labor. He is causing every place of “Look at what I accomplished for you, God!” to be broken beyond repair. We are beginning to transition from boasting of our works to boasting of God’s works.

Do not grow discouraged as your best achievements unravel. The brokenness being produced will allow God to use us in a way that far surpasses our finest labors. It is just the end of who we are in this world’s system and the beginning of who we are in Christ. Abandon the ideals of human perfection and acceptance. It is time to sit in Daddy’s arms and know that we are loved as His children.