Key Bible Verse: "Work for six days, and rest on the seventh. It will … allow … your household … to be refreshed" (Exodus 23:12). Bonus Reading: Mark 6:30-32

A young fighter pilot once maintained that he didn't really require an oxygen mask up to 20,000 feet. He could function fine without it, thank you. His superiors, deciding to show him, placed him in a low-oxygen chamber that simulated air at 20,000 feet and asked him, after a few minutes, to write on a pad of paper his full name, address, family's names, social security and phone numbers.

Upon exiting, the pilot grinned. He felt fine-no problem. Then he looked at what he'd written and stared slack-jawed. The last three items were total gibberish, incomprehensible scrawling. He hadn't known his state at all.

Like the pilot, we function each week in rarefied, depleted air. The life-giving oxygen masks of prayer, the Bible, and Sabbath enable us to legibly live God's love.

Bombarded by amusements, modern society loses time for thoughtful reflection. Each week Sabbath engages us and lifts our sights. If our thoughts never rise above the level of humanity; if we never contemplate infinite wisdom and love, we will sink lower and lower.