Picture Of Peace

I found it on a bookshelf while vacationing a few weeks ago. I had recently taken a fall, skinned open a knee, back pain flared all over and the buzzing noise of complaints screaming for release threatened to steal the peace of this beautiful vacation with family.

And then Charlottesville. 

And then Sunday and Tuesday came and our hearts sank right down to our quaking toes in disbelief. This is not possible! We are falling backwards but maybe we never moved all the way forward? Stop this madness, please!

Each time I picked that book up on vacation, every moment I stowed away for a slice of rest, the little book opened to the same page. You see it and maybe you weep for us? You hear us and you stoop right down here in our problems and speak gentle truth. 

We avoided the news, lest violence and harsh talk met our grandsons' ears. Aspen trees whispered tranquilly outside, hushing out the chaos, sunlight filtered between the slender branches casting rays of hope, momentarily washing away the uncertainties, the pain and frustration. Little boys on bikes, new moves in the swimming pool, a baseball game on plush green grass, all splashes of joy, immeasurable grace. The feathery touches of the invisible.

Readying to pack up, I flipped the book open for the last time and that's when I first noticed it. This page that had lifted me up into the heavenly realms was earmarked, perfect proof that another soul needed this missive at some point and possibly others along the way on their own arduous journey.

There will be another crisis in this country, unwanted problems might continue, others will surface as well. But the One who lends you a small book, fixes your gaze just so, this tough guy, He can handle the cries and pleas we invoke along the way. Look up, listen, wait expectantly for the unseen. And fly high on wings of renewed hope, earmarking the gifts, sharing glimpses of heaven with others along the way. 

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Picture Of Peace

~Catherine Marshall~

There once was  a king who offered a prize to the artist who would paint the best picture of peace. many artists tried. The king looked at all the pictures. But there were only two he really liked, and he had to choose between them.

One picture was of a calm lake. The lake was a perfect mirror for peaceful towering mountains all around it. Overhead was a blue sky with fluffy white clouds. All who saw this picture thought it was a perfect picture of peace.

The other picture had mountains, too. But these were rugged and bare. Above was an angry sky from which rain fell and in which lightening played. Down the side of the mountain tumbled a foaming waterfall. This did not look peaceful at all. 

But when the king looked closely, he saw behind the waterfall a tiny bush growing in a crack in a rock. In the bush a mother bird had built her nest. There in the midst of the rush of angry water, sat the mother bird on her nest--in perfect peace.

Which picture do you think won the prize? The king chose the second picture. Do you know why?

"Because," explained the king, "peace does not mean to be in a place where there is not noise, trouble or hard work. Peace means to be in the midst of all those things and still be calm in your heart. That is the real meaning of peace."