Peace

There it was. Kind of hidden, almost unseen, but still there. I had almost missed it in my quiet time sitting on the deck. It’s a quiet morning. Chores done, trash burning and the dogs are eating. I am home alone, a rarity, but sweet one. The gator is sitting waiting for me to jump on and check horses one more time. Still in sweats and sweatshirt from doing chores and hay still hanging on the edge of my pant legs. My cereal is now rather smushy from sitting in the milk too long but it doesn’t really seem to matter. For today, I have blossoms on my peace lily. I pulled the short end of the straw and ended up with plants after mother’s funeral. I don’t do plants. I kill them. I felt guilty this spring because I hadn’t paid any attention to them and put them on the deck and figured they would finish croaking and I would be relieved of my duties. Last week I cast a glance in their direction and noticed several of them were much taller. Well, with all the rain and heat we have had, God has pretty much made southern Minnesota a greenhouse. But I wasn’t prepared for yesterday which led to today. That’s usually how it goes but let me explain. In the past 2 years I have had people steal my peace. I know some of you will say we have control of our choice of having peace or being in strife, and as much as we have within us to live at peace, but there are people who have gone out of their way to put enmity and strife in my way. It’s hard to drive around barricades when Christians are the ones slashing your tires and draining your gas tank. Outwardly I have held most of it like sand in my fingers but inwardly, well, peace has been a constant beckoning from God. Yesterday I did not cry. Yesterday’s was a day of music and laughter. Yesterday was a quiet day with friends, music and Chinese leftovers. I walked the perimeter of the farm and thanked God for the day of peace.. I sat was on the deck and laughed at the dogs. I lay in the hammock and listened to the wind. I watched the Vikings lose and marveled that such things could happen; the Packers losing helped.

Peace… God came to give us peace but it seems people exist to steal it. Christ lived a peaceful life and when we try to emulate him we are tossed under the bus and have tire marks all over our faces. What is there about peace that seems to evade our outstretched hand? And then there are days when God simply reminds us that He is peace regardless of what others do to us. We can have peace even when darts are flying our way and tomatoes they are throwing are rotten. And then when we have tossed all our hopes on the deck to be pummeled by life, God puts a bloom in our hearts. Our peace Lilly blooms amid the chaos and heat. And just when we thought there was no hope with winter coming on. I am glad God speaks in little things in life because it seems that’s where I hear him the loudest. If that peace lily can survive and bloom on the deck in the midst of this summer, then perhaps I will bring it in and try it for one more year just to remind me that God isn’t done with me or flowers I seem to relish killing…. and by the way, not one bloom but two… God delights in making it obvious he knows how to grow what he created…and he created my life also…better work on raising the trust-o-meter arrow a bit higher…