By John Blase
I write this on a day when words like healing and peace sound like pipe dreams. Our country, dare I say our world, is more than divided. We are broken, very broken. And like the fairy-taled egg, I am afraid all the king’s horses and all the king’s men cannot mend us together again.
So it is attractive on a day like today to give up hope, hunker down with those dearest to me, and close off the parts of my heart that have been open to others. It is tempting to sigh, We tried. But shucks, it’s just too broken. Fade to black.
And if it were all up to us and our horses and men and smarts and conferences and irony, then we would be justified in throwing in the proverbial towel. But Isaiah speaks up to remind us there is a God, and we’re not Him. And God has decided that healing and peace are more than just words. They are promises stout enough to stand on.
“Peace, peace to the one who is far or near, and I will heal him” (Isaiah 57:19 HCSB).
This peace God repeats is all encompassing—to those far and near. I type those words and the doubting Thomas that lives inside my head gets my attention and asks, But this is 2017, right? Shouldn’t there be evidence of this by now? I mean, c’mon, healing and peace, really?
It is then that a still, small voice speaks words that I’ve known since I was a boy: “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace” (Ephesians 2:13-14 NIV). And I am reminded that peace is not a word to be defined based on our current cultural barometer. No, peace is a Person to be trusted and followed.
Peace is God incarnate—Jesus the Christ, who lived and died and lives again. Peace is the Lord who invites all—regardless of country of origin, skin color, level of educational achievement, whether you had good parents or bad, political affiliation, religious affiliation, or economic status—to come, and to experience the healing waters of our God.
Even on a day like today when there is so much brokenness, there is something deeper. There is peace like a river, love like an ocean. There is Jesus.
Written by John Blase
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