“I wish you knew today what would bring you peace” Luke 19:42

Been thinking about peace lately a lot and how much I need it, how much everyone needs it.  My heart is heavy for a number of reasons today.  Friends and family that I love dearly are struggling with loss, some with unanswered prayer, some with illness, some with fear. While I know in my head the answers to the many woes of our heart it is sometimes hard to settle it and let it settle us.  Worry presses us deeper into ourselves, it has a way of causing us to sink beneath its emptiness. But knowing peace is to know Christ and to know Him is to know rest.

Oh how our hearts need rest.

Oh how our hearts are heavy suitcases of many things that need to be emptied out and filled with rest…

Rest from worry.
Rest from doubt.
Rest from what if.
Rest from why.
Rest from ourselves…

The awakening of the sacrifice of Christ’s unending love for us by His display on the cross rises us out of that deep place of fear or worry and places us where we are suppose to be – in the arms of peace. But not only that we would be in the arms of peace but that we would know it, recognize it, and settle ourselves into it. Settling ourselves into the knowing of peace and who it comes from, we emerge from the deep place of feeling lost, lonely, hopeless, restless, uncertain, empty and begin to rise to a place of the most perfect peace.

“I wish you knew what brings you peace…”

You know I’ve read that verse before, probably many times but today it gripped me. Maybe because it’s preceded by the words that Jesus wept. I had forgotten that He cried then too. I had forgotten that He wept over those who didn’t know what would bring them peace. He lamented over hurt, heavy, weary hearts who didn’t know peace, who didn’t know where to access it.

I think of those of us who have access to peace and don’t grab hold of it.

For some reason when I read those words this morning I thought back to countless times in my life when I had wrestled with all of the things that steal my peace, or perhaps even more I had wrestled with the one who would give me peace.  I thought back to being a teenager so desperate for the approval of others. I thought back to my abusive relationship and how empty and alone I felt. I thought back to all the millions of times in my life that I fought with depression. I thought back to my days of infertility and how hopeless I felt. I thought back to moments of feeling empty, or alone, or confused. I thought back to my restlessness, not just the restlessness of today but the restlessness of yesterday, the restlessness of tomorrows worries – pretty much the ‘any day’ that I didn’t stay fixed on the peace-giver.  As I reflect on these things I pictured Jesus weeping and saying…

“I wish you knew what would bring you peace”

I wish you knew…I had to break each of these words down…

I – Jesus son of God and son of man who came down from heaven. I, Jesus, the face of God came for you. I came for you…

Wish – To intend, desire…design

You – YOU

Knew – Recognize

Peace – Properly, wholeness

So basically…He wept……Jesus wept because He, the Son of God,  intended, desired, created you, me, us to recognize proper wholeness in knowing Him.

I wish you knew. I wish you knew. Know me.

The latter part of Luke 19:42 says,

“But now they have been hidden from your eyes.”

Oh man…that is not something I want. I don’t want Gods peace hidden from me, because of my lack of trust or belief or obedience or anything. I don’t want the veil of my fears or the clouds of my worries or the darkness of the unknown to keep me from being held and properly swept into the light of God’s peace.

“And to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:19

Knowing God fills us, completes us.
Knowing God is knowing peace embracing it, accessing it and beholding it.  

I hope you know peace….