Sunday Afternoon Tea - Peace in Times of Trouble

 
"And who knows whether you have 

not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

Esther 4:14

 I woke up far too early one morning this week.  It was very cold and I was reluctant to leave the warmth of flannel sheets and two quilts but I also didn't savor the thought of just laying there looking at the numbers on the digital clock.  The thought of coffee in a hurry became stronger than the pull of warm sheets.  It was a K-cup morning.

On the way to the kitchen, I looked toward the large window in the Living Room which looks out upon the forest.  The full moon was hiding between the trees but the light was pretty amazing.  So much so that I stopped the main mission... that of inhaling coffee... and looked out upon that beautiful color and sparkle of moonlight on snow.  Such Beauty.  Such Peace.

Like most people, I have to make a place for peace as the world around me wants to take it away all the time.  Sometimes it means shutting the door to the Study (my reward for the empty nest syndrome).  Often it requires opening a book or listening to music.  There are moments that all I can do is to put headphones on and tune out everyone.

All of these can... at any given time... bring a temporary peace.  But what about real peace, true peace, the kind that runs deep within the morrow of our very being?  That only comes from accepting the Prince of Peace as Savior and Lord.  Peace is a Person.

There is something else that brings me peace.  An understanding which has grown over the decades of walking with Jesus.  That is the realization that I am... we are... right at place in time and history and location that He placed us.

He created us for such a time as this.

He had a reason for placing you and me in a time when the world is changing faster than we can keep up.  I used to tell people I did not shock easily with what the world offered.  Now I feel shocked all the time.  The culture, the current Administration in Washington, modern media, all that came together to paint a world which looks nothing like the one I once knew as a younger person.

He was fully aware when he brought about the circumstances of my birth... long after my mother thought she was done having babies... where I was born... when I was born... the people He put in my path and the experiences He allowed... all coming together for one purpose.

For such a time as this.

For you see, I know He calls us to very difficult situations and experiences.  Life is not easy.  It is not Heaven, yet.  He knows we are being born in the first Age of Man that the world could be destroyed by humanity made creations.  He knew the Middle East would be a boiling cauldron and China would become a world power again and that Putin would enter Syria last Fall.

He knew that the the personal computer would change the world and that the Internet would link the world and that both would be used for good and evil.  He placed us here in that time and space, chatting with each other via the keyboard... it did not take Him by surprise.

He wrote about this Day and Age in the Book so when we saw these events happening, we would look up and rejoice for they all are indicators that it won't be long before His second coming and this time... it is for good.

He plopped us in this very time of His-story for such a time as this.

He is always teaching us.  He is always equipping us.  He gives us strength when we falter and notices when we pick ourselves up and shake the dust off and get on with the race... with our spiritual eyes on the goal.  He promises rewards for not quitting.

He knows we are "made of dust" for He was there, making a mud human out of the dust of that fallen piece of earth.  Then breathing in the very image of Himself.

But He also knows something we can't and that my friend makes all the difference.  He knows what we become as we walk through the fires of adversity. As we don't give up, as we keep on keeping on, as we fall, as we take a detour and find our way back, that we have a tendency for fear to grip us and apprehension to steal our peace.

So when you watch the news and wonder at the future remember this... the God of Esther... the God of Joseph... the God of Moses... the God of Daniel... the God of Stephen the first Martyr... the God of Matthew and Mark and Luke and John and Peter and Paul...  He is the same God that allowed their lives to be what they were in their time and place.

He loves you just as He loved them.  Today.  Your Day.  Your Time.  Your People.  Your Place.  For such a time as this.

Image:  My neighbor's barn after a previous snow.