Dearest Sister,
My hydrangeas are dying. I can see the outline of their brown petals through my sheer curtains as I type. I can also hear the squalling of my five-week old fighting to take a nap while Barrett’s pants, which she just soiled from a bodacious blow out, dry behind me. I have been in Okinawa, Japan for a little over five months now, and in that time, my Navy Chaplain husband and I had to buy cars, rent an apartment, find a church and make friends before he deployed three weeks later. We have had the remnant of the Japan tsunami encourage us to higher ground, a typhoon scream at our walls for hours, and weather so hot, breathing becomes optional. We also just had the joy (and pain) of having our first baby born in a new land with no family nearby to help with all the questions that follow. Now we are counting down the days to when my husband leaves again on deployment anywhere from two to five months. I will once again be alone without my family facing this new stage of motherhood and parenting alone.
I have also been reading the headlines of a crashing economy back home in the States, the unemployment rate rising, congressmen caught with their pants down, and Americans wondering why we have boots on the ground in Libya with no mission explained. I heard Benjamin Netanyahu state his case before congress to implement healthy borders for both Israel and Palestine, and have seen the deadly repercussions from a pastor burning the Quran in protest of Islam. There have been tornados, floods, and more tornados hitting the Midwest in record numbers leaving countless families with no homes or tangible memoirs.
How can there ever be peace? How can I have peace in the midst of my personal chaos? How will this world ever have peace in the Middle East? Is it possible?
Chaos and disagreements entered the world as soon as Adam and Eve took that infamous bite of forbidden fruit. Since then we have had wars in every generation with men giving their lives for what they hoped would ultimately end in peace…yet a new war always seems to rear its ugly head. It seems there is no hope for peace for us or this fallen world.
Yet the Bible gives us the history and record of a promised deliverer who would be the Prince of Peace for this cursed world. This Peace-giver came humbly in a stable in Bethlehem to a poor peasant girl and humble carpenter. The Good News dear sister of mine is that this Prince of Peace still comes today! The perfect God-Man who lived a perfect life and had peace with His Father, this Prince of Peace died on the cross to take away the curse resulting from the garden and rose again showing the world that the sin debt was paid has broken that curse for you and for me!
So, how does Jesus’ death and resurrection give me peace when I don’t have time to water my brown hydrangeas and have to wash Barrett’s pants again after Annabelle has another blow out? Putting my faith and trust in the Prince of Peace alone for my salvation means that I have peace with God. My sins, which deserve death, are forgiven and God counts me as perfectly righteous through Jesus Christ! This Prince of Peace gives me hope of the lion lying laying with the lamb, for no more war or rulers that fail in morality. This Prince of Peace gives me the joy of knowing heaven is in my future and that the closest to hell I will ever be is here. The peace you and I have with Christ is similar to the overall peace my precious daughter has despite fleeting moments of pain when tears shoot out of her eyes. Her life is characterized by peace because she has trust in her mom and dad’s love and care for her. Likewise, even in the midst of a world falling apart around us we have peace in knowing my heavenly Father loves and cares for us. If He loves you and I enough to send His son, the Prince of Peace, to die for us, how can we not trust He will watch over us? How can I not trust Him while my husband is deployed, my car breaks down, or when the storms flex our windows? Knowing the Prince of Peace makes such peace possible!