Word Wednesdays

There is a second verse to this beautiful hymn that needs space for us to receive and reflect upon:

My country's skies are bluer than the ocean,
And sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine.
But other lands have sunlight too and clover,
And skies are everywhere as blue as mine.
Oh, hear my song, O God of all the nations,
A song of peace for their land and for mine.

In the post on Monday, I mentioned that the word for peace in Hebrew is Shalom.  Peace that is wellness and wholeness within the individual and the whole collective.  The prophet Isaiah talked about this kind of peace as the wolf laying down with the lamb.  The vision unveiled to John in Revelation saw all nations gathering by the river where there was 12 kinds of fruits from the healing of the whole wide world.  Jesus walked and wandered all around the land he called home, into neighborhoods that were rich and poor, where there were priests and religious people and those people from the wrong side of the tracks.  Peace means weaving together threads that we think might clash but end up together creating a beautiful tapestry.

Oh, hear my son, O God of all the nations...a song of peace for their land and for mine.

The hymn writer knows that you cannot fully enjoy peace unless your neighbor does too.
The hymn writer knows that no nation can be safe when another nation has strife and suffering -
Because as we have seen this year with the virus - brokenness does not respect boundaries but will burst into wherever it can.

Shalom...peace here and there because peace is not a limited resource.  Peace is a generative resource.  Peace longs to be shared and surges the more who reside in this space.  Peace is expansive and embracing.  The economy of peace doesn't work like any other system...the politics of peace is not polarizing or competition or comparing but collaborative cooperation where creativity is celebrated. 

How might peace take root and reside in your heart?
How might peace find expression in your words and actions?
Where might peace take you in these days?
Do you sense how peace can open us all to more than a trace of God's grace?

May the peace that surpasses understanding but longs to live in our hearts find a space, home in you this day and this week.  Amen.