What do you think about when you think of peace?

When people have gone through such dark valleys and you know their suffering is terribly deep, what comes to your mind when they tell you they have peace? A warm, bubbly feeling? Maybe contentment? Ease? It's as if this peace has naturally, yet unexpectedly breezed through them. Like peace were something that has passively fallen from the sky.

Then I read the heart of Holley, as she reflects on her journey. She says this about peace:

"As I was driving, I reflected back over our journey and I realized the kind of peace I meant. It’s not the pansy, pie-in-the-sky, life-is-perfect peace. No, this is the kind of peace that comes after war. It’s the hard-won,
show-you-my-scars, didn’t-think-I’d-live-to-tell-about-it, peace. It’s not gentle—it’s wild, fierce, and I’m not giving it up, not ever, because I paid too high a price to get it."

Just as we fight for joy, we fight for peace. It's something that is aggressively sought after. And thankfully, it is something that we can find. It is when we tread in those dark places, still feeling the ache of our own heartbeats, we see a glimpse of Light. There is Jesus.

When you witness people fighting for such peace in their despair, be taken back by their courage on the frontlines. Think about the high price of their loss; remember that the peace won for us all came through the most intense suffering imaginable. Then marvel at the grace that gives their souls the peace that surpasses all understanding; marvel at the beauty that the Lord is making of grief. And don't think of peace as whimsical. It is God-given. It is a miracle.