In the twilight of time will we find peace?

In the twilight of time will we find peace?

The very element of peace is appearing as a myth in today’s world where the rules of a good government have left us hanging.  Of course, peace as an absence of discord, wars, or pain is not what God ordained.  Jesus came to restore peace in the manner of forgiveness and knowledge of his mercy without allowing the human capacity to be free of normal life because of our free-will.  The Lord never willed that we should be free of suffering, but learn to grow in spite of what life seems to throw at us.

Look at nature when the winds and severe storms attack the trees that through their strength withstand the fierceness of mother nature.  Watch the world’s mountains that seem to bellow their tops as one or more volcanoes erupt and the result of a destroyed landscape brings forth new life of productive landscapes.  Out of the seemingly tragedy of violence to nature's entities comes new life that produces more growth for mankind.

Did the Lord see the violence perpetrated on his Son when the Christ became an image of scourging, even before the actual whips upon his helpless body?  Could he have designed a better way to forgive us for our sinfulness by the absence of peace?  This passion became the very essence of peace being removed from his Son so that like a volcano redoing the surface of a vegetative land, his suffering became the only way that you and I would find peace as a result of the anger through humanity.  

What then is this peace we sing about, promote through words, or attempt to live by fighting the evil of the world?  It is found only through the suffering of the wind, storms of life, and the withdrawal of concern from those who do not believe in the human capacity of love for one another.  When God saw how eager man was to reject the grace he poured upon us and sought an easier way to accumulate wealth and power in lieu of grace, he had to also pull back that grace and allow us to find our own way through suffering before he would send his Son to save us.

Peace is the premise of grace that can only be found through faith, and we must be willing to accept that cross that is present when the storms of unrest come upon us and ask each one to breathe in the wind of God’s mercy.  Jesus became the Lamb of sacrifice because of the sins we perpetrated upon ourselves.  It took his faith that God’s grace handed a peace that could only appear when he shed his blood for you and me.  

Ralph B. Hathaway