“And of all words that ever were spoken, were there ever any gentler, tenderer, humbler, lovelier than these? ‘Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’

He wants us to have peace—his peace—peace from the same source as his. For what does he mean by, “Take my yoke upon you and learn of me?” …He means, Take upon you the yoke that I wear; learn to do as I do, who submits everything and refers everything to the will of my Father. Yea, have my will only insofar as I carry out his will; be meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest for your souls. With all the grief of humanity in his heart, in the face of the death that awaited him, he yet says, ‘For my yoke, the yoke that I wear, is easy; the burden I bear is light.’

What made that yoke easy—that burden light? That it was the will of the Father.

Alas! for poor men and women and their aching hearts! Come, then, sore heart, and see whether his heart can heal yours. He knows what sighs and tears are….Beloved, we must get rid of this misery of ours. It is slaying us. It is turning the fair earth into a hell, and our hearts into its fuel. There stands a man who says he knows; take him at his word. Go to him who says in the power of his eternal tenderness and his pity, ‘Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’ (Matthew 11:28) ~George MacDonald, from his novel,The Curate’s Awakening