Peace is Within Reach.

This world can be a big ball of foggy madness and messy noise and driving cars and busy schedules and overflowing in-boxes and stacks of scratched out to-do lists …

 

It can be overwhelming. It can be so 21-century busy that you don’t even notice while you are in the social whirlwind of it all. It can be exciting and wonderful but also tiring and shallow. It can be so noisy with fear and doubt and worry and status updates and newsfeeds that we find it hard to hear the gentle voice of God.

 

And so in the four walls of our own home, with five young lives to train and raise, we decide we need more peace.  We need to set by example. We cut busy out … we unplug, we deactivate accounts, we scale back, we book less and stay longer. We light candles, boil water for tea and read to children sitting in a row. We open the Bible more and waste time less. We sit on the floor and watch babies stretch arms out of their windows to touch and feel the cold, sparkling freshly fallen snow …

 

 

 

 

This wonderful exciting snow … the coolness on their fingers and tongues … an afternoon treat from Heaven …

 

and as we wait, our 9-month old baby plays with her handmade bunny … while a dear friend and her five-day old baby fight for peace in crowded NICU room in a busy, packed city … they fight for peace and we pray for peace …

 

I desperately wish I could pick up this verse and send it right to my friend and press it into her hands … those hands which cannot hold her little baby and must instead simply fold in desperate prayer …  she needs this peace … her sick baby needs this peace … we all need this peace stamped on our hearts just like this small bunny …

Scripture, written, right there in plain view as little hands grasp the knitted toy, life day in and day out, knowing peace is right there, within reach …

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.
I do not give to you as the world gives.
Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

John 14:27

 

 

and so I sit on the nursery floor of our home, while the snow falls quietly outside, and earnestly pray for amazing, Heavenly peace to fill our home, to touch my exhausted friend, to spill into her broken heart and take her troubles away ….overflowing her entire family with a calm, quiet peace that passes all understanding.

 

 

 

 

We will not let our hearts be troubled.  Peace is within arm’s reach.