Story of Peace
“Is there a place you can go, even just in your mind, where you feel most at peace?”
When I entered therapy over 5 years ago, I explicitly said to myself, “I’m not doing any of the fluffy-duffy crap.”
Yet here I was nearly 5 years later in my counselor’s office doing just that. She asked those words and as she said “peace?” My mind had a That’s So Raven moment.
There was an immediate transformation in my mind…or maybe teleportation is a better word. There I was walking across the no-railing bridge. It bends slightly under my weight. There is still water underneath it.
I walk across the dirt path into the clearing. There it is, the place of memories. The white and brown shelter is there on my right. It’s dusty and filled with cobwebs. The picnic table is more splintered than the year before. The fire pit shows signs of visitors the night before.
I walk a little further to the place I feel most at peace. I sit on the splintered bridge with my chubby legs swinging off the edge. The creek is flowing after a good night’s rain. The breeze is blowing in my face as I stare into the water.
I can smell the layers of bug spray and sunscreen on my skin. I can feel their sticky residue on my clothes. I hear the birds flying between trees. I hear the critters rustling in the fallen leaves.
And all the rest of the world is still there. My world - it’s at peace.
For those keeping score….
The Advent Story of Peace, I hope feels like that place to you.
If you read the Advent Story of Hope, you know I started the story with this same vision. But this time, fast forward about 150-200 years - from 750-700 BC to about 600-550 BC. And let’s tell this story again, but from a different time.
Your ancestors were slaves in Egypt. God anointed Moses to rescue them. They went literally through the Red Sea to escape. And God promised them this amazing place of milk and honey called the Promised Land.
But your ancestors weren’t the smartest. They wandered away from God and roamed the wilderness for 40 years (longer than you’ve been alive!).
But God delivered them. God has appointed judges, kings, and prophets over and over again. But the story is always the same - deliverance, backturning, redemption. Deliverance, backturning, redemption.
Hold it! This is exactly how the Advent Story of Hope started!
Before angry mobs start, let me continue - I promise it will change.
And now there is this guy named Ezekial.
See! I told you there was a change. But do you see that! Since about 1450 BC when they escaped Egypt, Israel continues with the same cycle. The same cycle we encountered with Isaiah and now the same one with Ezekial. Deliverance, backturning, redemption.
Ezekiel, your family tells you, was part of the Israelite prisoners taken from the Babulonian attack on Jerusalem (2 Kings 24:8-17). And he, like your family, were exiled and now part of an Israelite refugee camp.
But Ezekiel has some weird visions! It’s not a gift you bear, but what he has to say is really interesting to you, so you listen. He says that Jereusalem will fall. You might snicker at the crazy man with weird visions. You might snicker at the fact that your hometown is nothing but the strongest and greatest city of them all (Ezekiel 1-32).
Then, you received word that your beloved city of Jerusalem has fallen. The city you grew up in. The city your family came from - a place of roots and heritage. It has fallen. Ezekiel was right
In the cycle of deliverance, backturning, and redemption, it feels like this time it was God doing the back turning.
But Ezekial isn’t done talking. He says that God will create a new King David.
King David? That guy’s been dead over 400 years and now crazy Ezekial is saying there is another great King? But crazy Ezekial was right before, so you listen closer.
He says, “God wants to make a covenant of peace with you.” (Ezekiel 34:25)
Covenant - a word you know well. You live in the light of God’s past covenants. His covenants with Abraham, Noah, and Moses. Covenant - unbreakable promise.
His new covenant - one of peace. The very thing you need right now. God isn’t turning His back on you, but rather making a deal with you. His deal - you’re my child, I’ll give you peace.
That’s the simplicity of it all.
Imagine hearing those words as you were an exiled Isrealite. Then imagine the day up in Heaven when you looked down to hear Jesus, the new King David, tell his dear believers:
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.
– John 14:27
Covenant unbroken.
And imagine looking down to the crazy lady in the woods swinging her legs over the rolling creek at total and utter peace.
Covenant unbroken.
The Advent Story of Peace is about just that - covenant unbroken.
Learn more about Ezekial here.
