What may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. Romans 1:19.

Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you. 2 Thessalonians 3:16.

Peace I leave with you; My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. John 14:27.

I loved this in You Are The Beloved by Henri Nouwen: “It is hard to believe that God would reveal His divine presence to us in the self-emptying, humble way of the man from Nazareth. So much in me seeks influence, power, success, and popularity. But the way of Jesus is the way of hiddenness, powerlessness, and littleness. It does not seem a very appealing way. Yet when I enter into true, deep communion with Jesus, I will find that it is this small way that leads to real peace and joy.”

There are days like yesterday when I am overwhelmed with why. Why so much hate and violence in this world? Why did God even create all of us? How can we live together for eternity when we cannot live together now? And in that frame of mind it’s easy to see only the negative and completely fail to see the beautiful and the good all around us. And yesterday afternoon I read two of George MacDonald’s Unspoken Sermons: Love Your Neighbor and Love Your Enemy. Jesus’ words to us. And I realized how far I need to go in understanding why.

And in our chapter, 2 Corinthians 5, Paul is showing us how for the why that Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit, is actively working in us. For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge. Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord – for we walk by faith, not by sight – we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest to God; and I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciences. We are not again commending ourselves to you but are giving you an occasion to be proud of us, so that you will have an answer for those who take pride in appearance and not in heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are of sound mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all…therefore all died; and He died for all…so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf. Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature…the old things passed away…behold…new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ…reconciling the world to Himself…not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ…be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin…to be sin on our behalf…so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

From Love Your Enemy this small excerpt: “If any one say, “Do not make such vague distinctions. There is the person! Can you deny that that person is unlovely? How then can you love him?” I answer, “That person, with the evil thing cast out of him, will be yet more the person, for he will be his real self. The thing that now makes you dislike him is separable from him, is therefore not he, makes himself so much less himself, for it is working death in him. Now he is in danger of ceasing to be a person at all. When he is clothed and in his right mind, he will be a person indeed.”

Can we trust God for all we can’t understand? Because while we live in this world without His help, we are lost in death working in us. The beauty God created is still here all around us but can we truly appreciate it in full without knowing Him who created? That the Son, Creator God, became one of us to live among us and show us the better way with Him who loves…that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself…is more than we can begin to comprehend. So we walk gladly with Him by faith. We see everything not of God’s love because we still live in this world as it is now. But our eyes are opened to trust Creator God by Whom are all things, through Whom are all things…and in Whom will all things yet be when the Son returns. Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God…who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge. How remarkable is the way God is working! Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace at all times and in every way…The Lord be with all of you…Peace I leave with you…My peace I give you…I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid!