“Visualize world peace!” Remember that bumper sticker. How is this project going? Some jokester lampooned the bumper sticker with another: “Visualize whirled peas.” I suppose their point was, “You are more likely to make whirled peas appear than world peace. But we want, peace, don’t we?
One of my favorite actors Robert Duval passed away recently. Among his many movies, one of my favorites is called, The Apostle. In the movie, he goes to his mother’s house and prays so loudly it disturbs the neighbors. He cries out in despair, “Give me peace. Give me peace. Give me peace. Blow this pain out of me.” His mother played by Loretta Lynn tells the neighbor: “That is my son. Sometimes he talks to God and sometimes he yells at God.”
If you did visualize a halcyon scene of peace, what would be in the picture frame? A river, for me. “I’ve got peace like a river,” we sang in my youth. Or the greater hymn, “Like a river glorious, is God’s perfect peace. Wherever I travel, I try to find a river or stream along which to run in the mornings. At our house it is Buffalo Bayou. When my Uncle died in Washington, it was the Columbia River.
Isaiah envisioned peace coming from God. As Judah sang a song of righteousness, Isaiah said, “God will keep in perfect peace, those whose minds are steadfast.” The older translations had it, “those whose minds are stayed on him.” How do we know if our minds are steadfast? We trust in God.
Jesus, the promised Prince of Peace is the only one who can bring peace. Remember the Hebrew word shalom connotes more than the absence of strife. Shalom is the presence, the fullness of God’s goodness poured out upon his people who trust in him.
Why trust in the Lord? He is the Rock eternal. He humbles the lofty, but he honors the lowly. The refrain of the hymn “Like a river glorious,” says, “Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blest; finding as he promised, perfect peace and rest.”
