Often when I am tired I can only think about one thing: the fact that I am tired. It seems that the People to whom God speaks through the prophet Isaiah feels similarly. Weighed down by the increasing difficulties in the world around them, they grew weary and begin to think only of their own weariness and thus begin even to despair of the care of God. What remedy does the Lord offer them through the prophet? To raise their eyes to the Creator of all, to see all that God has made, and then to hear what God says: “The LORD is the eternal God, creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint nor grow weary [...] He gives strength to the fainting.” (Isaiah 40:28-29) God calls them to shift their attention from their weary selves to the Lord who is the source of their life and the source of their strength. By returning to their source, they may be renewed in hope and renewed in vigor.
Again, we hear the voice of Christ repeating what He had spoken through the prophets. He again addresses the tired. He again calls them back to the source of their life, yet here our Lord makes this source clearer: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28) Jesus points to Himself, and to His loving heart as the center of our attention and our hope of rest. Today, let us turn to the Lord who is coming to us and ask Him to strengthen us, to help us draw closer and closer to Him, and so receive the rest He desires to give to our souls.