PEACE
(Read Isaiah 9:6,7 & John 14:27).
This is an often used, largely misunderstood word. From a Biblical perspective, it is more than absence of war. So many images are packed in the Hebrew Shalom, it is difficult to convey full meaning, apart from metaphor. Isaiah’s vision found fulfillment in Jesus, whose life of complete harmony with the Father, is the essence of Shalom, and remains Jesus’ gift to His disciples and desire for all creation. To seek Peace for an individual or upon a nation, is to desire the fullness of life that acknowledges God as the author of harmony and divine wholeness. In Horatio Spafford’s hymn: It is well with my soul, he affirms…”whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say, it is well with my soul.” Peace then, is heart-certainty, rooted in divine connection, that issues in the ability to live contentedly, external challenges notwithstanding. When next you extend a greeting or pray for peace, be sure then that your desire is Godly wholeness which must begin…with you.
SHALOM
Canon “Grace” Jervis