“My Peace I

Give You”

Let the peace that Christ give control

your thinking. You were all called
together in one body to have peace.
(Colossians 3:15)
We are beginning a brand-new school year. Many of us are excited—maybe
even a little nervous or worried. Usually, the first few days of school can be
exciting, confusing, or nerve-racking, but they very rarely are peaceful.
Wouldn't it be something if school were perfectly peaceful?
Imagine it with me. You can close your eyes if you want to—in fact, you may
need to close them In order to be able to imagine such a thing.
Imagine that the rules of your school are absolutely, totally, perfectly fair.
The principal and all the teachers agree that the rules are fair. The parents
all agree that the rules are fair. Each and every student agrees that the rules
are fair and that they want to obey every single one.
I hope you have good imaginations.
Now, imagine that everyone in the school gets along with everyone else. The
teachers and principal and parents work together to find the best way to run
the school. The teachers love each of their students, listen to them, and
encourage them. The teachers will know how each student is special. The
students all get along with each other. Everyone is friends with everyone else.
The older students watch out for the younger students. Everyone is included
and welcome—and necessary.
Imagine all students want to learn everything they can. The teachers do their
best to make the lessons easy and interesting. The students pay attention;
they listen and ask questions and discover new things.
We can imagine even more. Imagine that your school has everything it needs
to teach its students.
The students have all the textbooks they need. Everyone has pencils and
erasers and glue and crayons. There is a big cupboard full of art supplies
that anyone can use anytime. The library has so many lovely books that you
could never read them all, and there is plenty of time every day just for
reading for fun. There is a computer lab with enough computers for
everyone. Each classroom has a television, video camera, and stereo system.
Everyone gets to learn to play the piano or trumpet or drums or whatever he
or she wants. And classes can go on interesting field trips whenever they
want.
Wouldn't it be nice if no one ever got into trouble? Wouldn't it be nice if no
one's feelings got hurt?
Wouldn't it be nice if your teacher never got upset? Wouldn't it be nice if
everyone played with everyone at recess and everyone talked and laughed
together at lunch? And if lunch always tasted delicious?
Can you imagine such a school? That would be perfect. That would be
perfect peace.
Before our world was created, there was perfect peace in heaven. God's
Family worked together in peace. God the Father, God the Son, and God the
Holy Spirit worked together to create the universe and creatures to live in
that universe. All of God's rules were fair. Everyone knew that the rules
would bring them peace and would make them happy. The rules were based
on love: God loved His creatures, and they loved Him.
God did not create beings who were forced to love and obey Him. All of
God's creatures were given the freedom to choose whether or not they would
serve Him. There was peace in heaven because the angels chose to obey
God's rules. No one ever got into trouble.
No one's feelings were ever hurt. Everyone got along.
If you were to ask someone what the word
peace means, that person would probably
say that peace means there isn't any war.
That definition is true, but peace means a
lot more than that. In the Bible, the Hebrew
word for peace is shalom. Shalom is not just the absence of fighting—it is the
fullness of living. Shalom means having everything you need to be happy.
Some people think that peace is boring. Some people think that heaven is a
place where angels sit on clouds playing harps. But now you know that
heavenly peace is full and rich and happy. Peace doesn't just mean that
someone won't hit you; it means that someone will love you.