Peace… what do you think of when you see the word “peace”?  What you think really says a lot about you.  Do you think of the global community and how you wish people would all just get along? Do you think of daily news reports that keep you from believing that peace in the world will ever be a real possibility? Or is it closer to home for you… maybe you think more about your own life, home, family.  Is there a lack of peace in your daily life?  Do you find yourself riddled with anxiety and really not able to ever feel like you can get out of its clutches?  Is there someone in your life who is bringing chaos and confusion to the point that you feel anxious whenever you’re around them?

Whatever your first thoughts are when you hear the word “peace,” our loving heavenly Father wants you to know that peace is not about externals, circumstances, or anything that happens to be swirling around you at the moment.  True peace begins in the heart.  Authentic peace is a gift from a loving heavenly Father to His child… the child who has handed over his or her heart to the loving care of the Father Who created it. 

Philippians 4:6-7 urges us to “be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving let your requests be known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” In other words, when we have given the Lord our hearts and minds, we can talk to Him about anything… ANYTHING. And we should talk to Him about everything (He knows anyway). But in talking to Him, we are laying those difficult circumstances, those tough decisions, those anxious thoughts, etc. at His feet. We are not able to “fix” whatever it is that is troubling us, but we can trust that in His perfect time our loving Father will work everything out for our good. (Romans 8:28 “For we know that God works all things together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose.) Do you love Him? Are you called according to His purpose? If you do and are, then you can trust that whatever is happening is good and for your ultimate good.

And when we do this, His peace is a gift to us — a peace that is beyond even our ability to understand it — the deepest, abiding, trusting, resting peace. Jesus spoke of that peace 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. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.”

I have loved the analogy of a tapestry that I heard years ago. He is weaving our lives into a tapestry; however, only He can see the right side of the tapestry. We are only able to see the tangle of threads on the backside of the work. It seems not to make sense from our viewpoint. But from His vantage point it is being woven into a thing of beauty.

Tapestry

My life is like a tapestry
Woven, oh so lovingly,
By the One who’s molding me
Into what I’ve yet to see.

My eyes are only allowed to see
What’s underneath the tapestry,
A picture that is blurred to me
As stitch by stitch He’s making me.

Still I trust, though I cannot see
What my life is yet to be.
The Master weaves so tenderly
The reflection of His Son in me.

The picture, incomplete to me,
Is a thing of beauty He can see,
For He creates each stitch to be
His picture-perfect tapestry.
© March 11, 1998


Philippians 1:6
“For I am confident
of this very thing,
that He who began a good work in you
will perfect it
until the day of Christ Jesus.”

1 Corinthians 13:12
“For now we see in a mirror dimly,
but then face to face;
now I know in part,
but then I will know fully
just as I also have been fully known.”