There's no peace on earth

There is no roar like the rush of a flood's water. There is no clamor like the loss of one's peace.

I realized just this past month how close in similarity these two completely different situations are. I sometimes think that the power of water is underestimated, I know that I once underestimated it. There is nothing within it's path that it will not touch and potentially destroy, yet no living thing resides on this earth lest it partakes in the cooling flow of water.

Peace... peace is a difficult concept in my mind. Its loss is potentially lethal and yet its possession can give a life no amount of water ever filled. Throughout this earth there are so many bodies of water, so many creeks, springs, ponds, lakes, oceans, taps, and tanks that in some places it is inescapable. But there is one true peace and that peace is found in only one place; that peace belongs to Christ.

Toward the end of this passed July my brothers, sister, and I passed a fun afternoon playing old games in our back yard. The sun set and we watched a favorite movie while it began to sprinkle outside. A thunderstorm came and we watched the lightening jump from cloud to cloud while spending time with family. Night fell and while we slept through the occasional clap of thunder and heavy rain on the roof, we didn't realize that when we awoke that happiness which we had experienced during the day would have been carried away by the night. Our farm experienced some rather severe water damage while we slept comfortably in our beds, not realizing that the rain was really as heavy as it was. Morning brought a completely washed out creek, resulting in devastating damage to our culvert.

The unrest which our creek had experienced was truly disheartening. Our fence, which we had just finished installing, was crushed by a giant poplar whose earth had been eroded out from beneath it's roots. For 40 years it had clung to the creek bank until it had nothing left to hold it. Our culvert that we had installed so many years ago with bucket after bucket of dirt, had been completely engulfed in raging water. The result was much of that dirt washed away and an unstable crossing to the back of our property. We were left with years of work washed away in a few moments. While we slumbered in comfort our peace was carried away upon the waves of a flash flood.

As we hauled our chainsaw, ropes, and disheartened will to the back hill in hopes of freeing the fence, I found myself thinking about peace; about how the peaceful flow of our creek had been so disrupted, about how our peace that we had experienced the day before had been so swiftly ripped away. I was angry that it had been. As the week continued I found myself not only angry and hurt but still at a loss for that peace. That was when I recalled a song I had listened to over the weekend.

The words reminded me: "There's no peace on earth, there is peace in Christ."

Truer words I have never heard. There is no peace on this earth unless the Lord Jesus gives it. With every corner and every turn we run into obstacles, sometimes they fall out of the sky to crush us as our fence was crushed beneath hundreds of pounds of wood, and sometimes that weight can feel even heavier than a tulip poplar. But there is One source who is able to lift even the heaviest of burdens. It says in John 14:27:

"Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

The funny thing is, I was scrolling through social media that day and someone had posted this verse. It hit me like a ton of bricks, like the water must have struck the culvert. That verse was for me, reminding me that despite the lack of peace we were experiencing that week, those few hours were not forever. The culvert and fence were repairable but neither are as easy to restore as the peace which is given to us freely through our Savior. So this morning as we go out to do chores and walk passed the water's damage we can be at peace despite it, because - unlike these earthly possessions - peace in Christ is free and given in abundance.

"I have said these things to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” ~ John 16:33

LINKS/REFERENCES:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Waitmz6C100

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