Peace a Rare Yet Sturdy Flower – Sunday, January 18, 1998
Of all the plants that grow in this garden that is our life, none is hardier than peace.
Peace can survive under some of the most difficult situations we know. It can thrive amid poverty.
It can flourish where sickness is, or war—and, yes, even in the presence of death. Sometimes in the darkest hours, when no light shines, the sweet balm of unseen peace will soothe our souls. We have many moving testimonies of the staying power of peace under the most agonizing conditions.
Yet, hardy as it is, peace is also a rare flower. When we encounter someone filled with peace, we feel ourselves in the presence of someone unusual, possessed of something enviable. The Prophet Isaiah referred to the Messiah as “The Prince of Peace.”1 Peace is perhaps heaven’s sweetest gift. When we have inner peace, we can bear any pain or sorrow; when we lack that peace, even our greatest blessings cannot bring us joy or comfort.
How, then, do we nurture this rare and precious flower?
In the political sense, peace means the absence of war. In the spiritual sense, peace is the absence of a divided heart. Peace, as sturdy as it is, cannot flourish when we are at war with ourselves. Even The Prince of Peace cannot grant us the blessing of peace until we ourselves call a truce to our internal civil war. If we preach tolerance and love, yet practice bigotry and hate, peace withers within us. If we believe that our families are more important than any worldly achievement or possession, but spend most of our energies getting and spending, peace cannot ripen and bear its fruit in our lives. A wise rabbi taught his congregation that sin is whatever we cannot do with a whole heart.2 When we live wholeheartedly—body, mind, and spirit all in harmony—then we have prepared the way to receive the peace of God.
-ELOUISE BELL
1Old Testament, Isaiah 9:6.
2Author unknown.
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January 18, 1998
Broadcast Number 3,570