“Now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, to a city of Judah, and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord.” Luke 1:39-49
Our peace matters to God.
The world, however, can’t deliver the peace that the soul seeks. True peace – the perfect peace of the Lord, like man knew in the Garden before the Fall – has to come from Him.
But the world is loud, filling our ears with all kinds of misinformation about how one finds peace. About what peace even is.
Is it financial security? Is it health? Is it having a ten year plan, and being eight years in? A good family? The ancient Israelites had just as many different ideas about what “peace” looked like as we do.
So many women and men considering abortion today do so because they are rattled to the core about the power of their unborn child to shake up their world and change it forever.
God knows a little something about that.
You see, in His perfect wisdom God sent His only Son to us. And Jesus was sent to intentionally change the world forever.
After generations of separation from God, after countless bridges made of sacrifices, mankind was offered the opportunity to walk again with God in the flesh on earth. God didn’t just offer us “a” peace, but the Prince of Peace.
The Lamb of God was born in a manger – maybe among a few other sheep mingled with the donkeys and cattle – to be the last blood sacrifice that the Father demanded of the world.
He wrapped his only Son in a mortal skin, to walk among us. To teach us. So we could hear from his mouth what peace is. And then He would die for us.
Because of His birth, His life, and His death, we can know and have peace, and have it eternally.
This week, please join me as I pray:
For the Lord’s peace to settle on expectant mothers and fathers, that they would not worry for a future with their children, and they would find peace and security in the knowledge that God holds their futures and accept the Prince of Peace’s lordship over their situations.
For ourselves, that we would be instruments of peace to our family, friends, and neighbors this Christmas and after, including those who may be struggling with unexpected – or unexpectedly complicated – pregnancies.
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