Oh friends, how are you? Have you been reading my sweet Ashlyn’s ponderings on the Advent season? How wonderful, right? My heart is tracking right along with her there.
As I pack to go home to Albany for Christmas for the first time as a working adult, my heart is just in a season of wrestling, brokenness, peace and trust. This week I prayed for peace - begged for peace - over a situation. And never got it. In frustration and nausea, I cried and asked for it again. and again. and again.
He looked me dead in the eyes and said “Sweet one, Peace does not come from circumstances, decisions, choices. Peace comes from Me. And being rooted in Me. And knowing that no matter whether you step left or right, I’m HERE. I am the Prince of Peace. It is my gift to give. Not a gift of circumstance.”
And right there, I was blown.a.w.a.y. Of course, I said, how could I forget?
If your 2011 has been a whirlwind, a year of transition and change like mine, or if your 2011 has been a year of sorrow and heartbreak like many, or if your 2011 has been a year of richness and reaping a sweet harvest - I pray that this Christmas season, that we settle into the Peacemaker. The one who holds the orphans of the world and the CEOs of the world. The one who intricately wove that beating heart of yours and also was an infant, born to teenagers, in a barn, under a starry sky - He’s got it.
Fear not.
Fear not.
Fear not.