Advent Pondering #4 – “Peace”.

Do we know peace in our lives?
This is a question that I have often considered, and for that matter do we really know what peace actually is?

When we say “peace” do we mean quiet or rest?
As in, when I get off of work I will put on my pajamas and lay in bed and veg on episodes of Netflix? Is this what peace is, and if so…is that all there is to this so called peace?

Perhaps peace is like this: these moments of respite and quiet are just glimpses or small reflections of true peace on earth. It is like that walk through beautiful lush, green pasture in the spring time that leaves us whispering to ourselves, “this is so peaceful”. This might also happen as we walk on a sandy beach as the waves ebb and flow and come cascading down onto the shoreline in a cadence that settles our hearts and slows our breathing. Or it takes places when we have all of our family under one roof again and after everyone is in bed there is that stillness that settles and we feel content and at peace.

I imagine the birth of Jesus was a visceral affair. A first time Mother, a virgin mother has travel for many miles to a town of Bethlehem for a census. She is very pregnant and about to give birth…there was nothing peaceful about the specific event, and yet following the most humble of births, Mary is recorded to have composed a song. Perhaps this song was crafted years after the event, perhaps right on the spot she forges this prayer that has become forever imbued with we the reader of this holy nativity story. Mary gives glory to a faithful God. It is a whisper of contentedness, a thanksgiving after the pained labor of birth. From the moment God’s redemptive story began to unfold before her eyes at the visit of the Angel, Mary has placed her entire existence into the hands of the Almighty. Here we find Mary, in this moment of exhaustion and post labor delivery singing her praise to a God who never forgets His people.

I imagine Mary’s words spoken…and in between each breath, cadence, and phrase of sentences formed together there is this Shalom peace that binds everything together and in it all contains the love of God wrapped in swaddling cloths asleep in Mary’s arms. It is more than just a peace of walking in a tranquil place. It is more than the sweet exhale of having all of your children under one roof again…it is the very presence of God in our lungs. It is the assurance from the Creator of those precious children. It is the very Artist’s hands who sculpted those pastural scenes coming into our presence and we cannot help but breathe and exhale shalom peace.

Gideon’s Jehovah Shalom Altar…
Gideon built at altar in the place the angel visited him Ophrah. He named that place: Jehovah Shalom. Which essentially means existing peace, or He exists and there is peace.

Is there Jehovah Shalom in your life right now?
Does Jesus exist in your narrative today? Do acknowledge not just the provisions of peace but the provider of that peace…even the small glimpses in our day of peace? The amazing thing is that Jesus is here and now – present with us. His spirit – The Holy Spirit can be the peace that we breathe in and out and the binding of one word upon another in our hearts and lives. Do we know this kind of peace today in our Advent? My prayer is that we all would know the depth and width of that Jehovah Shalom today.

May God richly bless you as you encounter and consider this sacred time in our Christian calendar…but beyond mere observances, may God’s shalom peace be upon you.

Something more to ponder in this Advent season.