“[I’ll start with] the windows, then the floor,” said Annie, when asked what she wanted to do upon arriving at Mr. Warbuck’s house.

“You don’t have to do any cleaning while you’re here,” Gracie told her.

“I don’t?” Annie asked, surprised. “How am I gonna earn my keep?”

Like Annie, it seems there is something in each of us that says, “If I just work hard enough, I’ll earn my keep. I’ll earn love, I’ll earn grace, I’ll earn acceptance. We try desparately to please God.

But astonishingly, God calls us to put down our brooms and our window rags. He calls us to put down our BlackBerries and our cell phones. To take off our work shoes and put away our uniform. Throughout scripture, He calls us to rest. Beautifully, implicit in that call is a call to trust. When we rest, we cannot also be doing. We cannot also be saving ourselves. Rest forces us to rely on someone else to provide sustenance.

The God Who could demand a lifetime of labor from us for the kindness He shows, commands us to rest. There is nothing we can do to earn His love, nothing we can do to receive additional forgiveness or grace. And remarkably, that’s exactly how God planned it. He calls us to rest in Him as an act of surrender. To be close to Him and to trust. To lay down our dusting rags, and our BlackBerries, and whatever else we might use to earn our keep. And to rest.