Peace
How Do You Get Peace?
My garden is blooming in a rainbow of colors.
Join me…I want to share with you what I saw and learned.
Brown eyed Susans stand in rigid bouquets. Tiny white blooms cascade from the wheelbarrow that Wayne made me from leftover log siding. Yellow and fuchsia colored mums compete with pink and yellow roses are tip top on my favorite list. Even though it’s fall, my Spring blooming Pink Fringe plant is covered in flowers. Purple blooms cover the Butterfly Bush. Accurately named, because the butterflies love them.
Pulling weeds had me on my knees.
When I heard the swish of the wings of a flock of low flying migratory birds I stopped to watch. The sweet smell of the fragrant blooms and the beautiful, fragile looking wings slowly pumping up and down made my weed pulling an enjoyable treat.
My largest and most interesting visitor, a seven-inch long Praying Mantis didn’t come to look at the flowers. To my sangrine, he came to eat from the buffet that smarmed on the butterfly bushes. Fat bumble bees. Yellow honey bees. Orange and black monarchs. Blue Swallowtails and an assortment of yellow butterflies. Even small moth looking butterflies had joined the feast of sweet nectar served in jars of purple fragrant blooms. And scattered monarch wings announced the mantis’ success.
The butterflies were so busy eating, that they let me come close. I was engulfed with dazzling beauty. Butterflies sat peacefully side by side, even on the same bloom, sharing their bounty. Without fanfare, they unfurled their party-horn like proboscis to drink the sweet nectar. I soaked in the beauty and the peacefulness of that moment.
Totally opposite of my summertime visitors.
Hummingbirds are so aggressive! Ours will buzz us as we sit on the porch if we dare to let their feeders get empty. And do you think they will share with another hummingbird? No, way! It’s just not going to happen. They are constantly fighting. They almost always eat alone. I realize it is the nature of Hummingbirds to be territorial. Fighting to protect their territory is just what hummingbirds do.
Dozens and dozens of times I’ve watched them nervously and frantically
Guard.
Protect.
Fight.
It’s just their nature.
But as a family of believers are we more like the Butterfly or the Hummingbird?
I realize that it is human nature to
Guard
Protect
Squander
Compete
It is human nature to be
Territorial.
Fearful that there will not be enough.
It is human nature to have a
Shortage Mentality that makes us
Fear
Jealous
Greedy
Selfish
Worry
It’s human nature, but…
Believer’s have a new nature.
And we must choose whether we will walk in our new nature or human nature.
Jesus points us to another of our flying teachers to illustrate this truth.
Matthew 6:25-27
25“That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? 26Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? 27Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? Matthew 6:25-27
In a world of turmoil, choose peace.
In a world of fear, walk with the Prince of Peace.
I can almost hear Jesus whisper,
“Peace be with you.”
He whispers in Scripture.
In the colors of a glorious sunrise.
He whispers in butterflies and fat, satisfied birds.
And when we consciously acknowledge and pursue His presence …
we will have real peace.