Wednesday Word

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.  Matthew 5:9

This verse and verse 10 about being persecuted because of righteousness are my class's memory verses for the week. They have been working on all the beatitudes--Matthew 5:3-10. But this one I spent extra time on. Peacemaker. Shouldn't we all be peacemakers? Don't we wish there were more peacemakers? When I asked the kids what they thought being a peacemaker meant, one said that it was trying to make a problem better. One said it was someone who tried to make peace. Well, yes. A peacemaker makes peace in any and every situation. But even more, a peacemaker doesn't cause unpeaceful situations...someone who carries peace with them and shares it with others. I explained to the kids that the opposite of peacemaker is troublemaker. If you are a troublemaker, you are most definitely not a peacemaker.

And look at what you get if you are a peacemaker. You get to be called a child of God. Picture this. You are playing a game. Any game. With a bunch of other people. And all of the players' parents are standing on the sidelines. And your parent in attendance is God. The father of all. And he is watching you. And he is smiling. And he is leaning over to the parent standing next to him. And he says, "See that one. That one right there making all the peace. That one's mine." Ooohhh. Don't you love that? Don't you love being called a child of God...by God himself. I do. I really, really, really do. That makes me want to be a peacemaker more than anything else.

I get peace. I understand it so completely because I've been without it so completely. I have felt it to my core and I've longed for it without success. I've had my soul flooded with it so powerfully that I felt the very presence of God and I've grasped at it and missed miserably. And through all of those times with peace and without, I've learned that peace, the true peace that passes all understanding, is my favorite gift from above. The one that holds all the others in its hands. The one that can ease my soul, heal my heart, and quench my thirst. The one that guards my heart and mind. The one thing that I never want to be without again.

So a peacemaker I will strive to be. I will carry it with me. I will share it. And I will be blessed. I will be called a child of God. And I will shout from the rooftops that the peace I have is not my own. It has been given to me by the ultimate Peacemaker. The peacemaker who has been and is and will ever be.