Great Peace

I’ve been thinking this morning about peace. I’ve loved moving here with Michael and Rachael. My days are filled with peace, spiritual peace and physical peace, peace of mind, peace of body. Right now it is the physical peace that is lulling my soul.

When I lived alone I had to be alert constantly for anything happening in the house or the property. Because my mobility is so severely limited, it takes me a great while to accomplish even simple tasks. Answering the door or the phone became a hectic struggle to reach it before the caller left. Because I could not go down or up the stairs, any strange noise or happening in the basement or upper floor had to be left until someone came to visit to be investigated. If a tree limb broke it had to remain down until I could pay someone to remove it. Even the smallest tasks that once I would have done myself or my son would have accomplished easily now had to be planned around and a handyman or professional found and paid for repairs. I had almost no one close who would come quickly and help me. It was distressing to have to allow minor upkeep tasks go undone because I could not find someone willing to do them or did not have the finances to pay a professional to do them.

My soul rested in the Lord but outside events impacted on my peace of mind. From the time of my husband’s death, I was solely responsible for all decisions, repairs, financial alternatives, for both my family’s private life and my job. I survived by trusting and waiting upon the Lord knowing that a solution would come. He always made a way through the tangled paths of the world.

Now I sit here. I have a room in Rachael and Michael’s home. I have no house. I have no car. If something breaks, Michael will fix it. If there is a decision to be made they will make it. I don’t even have to decide what to cook for supper. Rachael will do it. I have no worries. I can read, study, watch my animals play, sit in the sun when the weather is nice, write letters to friends online or talk to my grand kids, son and daughter-in-law so far away in New Mexico. I need not expose my fragile knees to the cold of winter or the damp of stormy weather.

And I can soak in the peace. The house is quiet. We live in a very nice neighborhood with no noisy cars or disruptive people. I have quiet music playing. I hear the gurgling of the fountain in the turtle tank. The cats are napping on their tower. One little dog is on my lap. The other two are happily snoozing on the bed. One is snuggled among the pillows on the bed and old Mica is stretched across the end.

The bitter cold of last week is over. The blowing snowstorms have moved on. The overcast skies have broken up to allow a brave winter sun to warm the deck and sprinkle light across the lawn.

How wonderful it is to wait on God. To rest in the confidence that He does control life for His children. We are assured that no matter how outside conditions might impact on our physical situation we can have inner peace and He will bring us to a place of security and calm. Our inner-most being is protected in the hollow of His Hand

I like the rendition of Lamentations 3: 25-28 in the amplified text The Lord is good to those who wait hopefully and expectantly for Him, to those who seek Him, inquire of and for Him and require Him by right of necessity and on the authority of God's word. It is good that one should hope in and wait quietly for the safety and ease of the Lord. It is good for a man that he should bear the yoke of divine disciplinary dealing in his youth. Let him sit alone uncomplaining and keeping silent in hope, because God has laid the yoke upon him for his benefit. All of my trials and the hard places that taught me discipline and faith were for my ultimate benefit. The Lord taught me to wait upon Him. And I learned the lessons.

Now I not only have spiritual security, I also have physical security. And In a few weeks, my daughter-in-law and grandkids are coming to get me so that I can be in NM with THEM for a few months. How much more blessed can I get?

Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them. Psalm 119:165