Peace

Go and read this devotional -- Piece be with You, written by Ryan Lavalley.

Next, take a look at these verse from the Gospel lectionary reading this week.

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. (John 20:19-22)

Picture it. The disciples are in a locked room. Their teacher and friend had been crucified. Dead. Buried. The situation seems irredeemable. Suddenly, Christ, the one who was dead, is standing in the locked room. In this impossible situation, Christ arrives. With him he brings peace. Offers them peace.

Christ enters our lives, enters our impossible situations, and brings us peace.

How does he do that? He breathes his spirit onto us, into us. He gives us a piece of himself.

Peace.

Image: First United Methodist Church, Ashland