My children love to play a lot and when they get hurt while playing, they would come to me or my spouse to get consoled. Jesus is telling us to come to him as we are. This choice of going to Jesus should not be only when we cannot handle things, but rather the opposite. A person may be carrying heavy burdens of sin, excessive demands of work, oppression and persecution, or weariness in the search for God. Jesus frees people from these and other burdens. The ‘rest’ that Jesus promises is love, healing, and peace with God, not the end of all labor. A relationship with God changes wearisome toil into spiritual productivity. In what sense is Jesus’ yoke easy? The yoke emphasizes the challenges and difficulties of partnering with Christ, who does not offer a life of luxurious ease – the yoke is still an oxen’s tool. But it is a shared yoke, with the weight falling on bigger shoulders than ours. We are participating in life’s responsibilities with a great Partner and now that frown can turn into a smile and that gripe into a song.

Prayer: Abba Father, may I not grow weary in following Jesus. Amen.