AS the children go back to school this week and parents resume busy lives, often juggling two jobs, family commitments and the responsibilities of keeping house and home together, I am reminded of the need for rest which we in the 21st century tend to put on the backburner of life.

Our frenetic lifestyles are surrounded by the pressure to achieve, and the pressure to be productive.

Last Monday we enjoyed the final Bank Holiday until Christmas – a holiday which was introduced by Act of Parliament in 1871 through the efforts of Sir John Lubbock to provide a wellearned break for a workforce who had very little opportunity to rest.

Some referred to these days of rest as ‘St Lubbock’s Days’, so grateful were they for this break in their hard and often monotonous lives of drudgery and grim working conditions.

Today we have machines and gadgets which ease our workload, but ironically make demands on us which totally consume us and become addictive.

We seem unable to put down the laptop or the mobile ‘phone, unable to leave the e-mails until we return to our desks, unable to just sit and relax with friends and family with the sole purpose of developing relationships and recharging our worn out minds. But resting from our usual activities is fruitful too, could we but stop to think about it.

The Genesis story in the Bible tells of God’s labours as He created the world. Six days he laboured, the story tells us, and on the 7th he rested.

And as I scurry around, keeping what seems like a dozen balls in the air at once, dashing from one place to the next with jobs to be done and people to be seen, I am reminded of that lovely story.

Whatever our ages and circumstances, rest is an essential part of being a fruitful human being. As life resumes its rhythms of school and work this week for families across the country, we need to remember that God Himself rested. God stood back from His labours and realised that the work He had done was good.

We need to do the same.

To be fruitful, productive human beings we need to set aside time to rest – time to worship and play, time to devote to those fruitful human relationships for which He made us.

CELIA WOODRUFF Chipping Campden Benefice Lay Reader