Saturday, December 17, 2005

Peace On Earth


For me, Peace on Earth cannot be had unless it starts with Peace In My Home.

I watch people--that is what I do. I watch them and listen to them and read what they say. Always, even after years and years, I am amazed when people seek and fight to make the world a Garden of Eden, all the while allowing their own homes to go to tares and weeds and sorrow. Hiding crying children and lonely spouses in closets and corners...and not recognizing the disaster of that.

Seeds of peace are sown in our own homes and then gardens are created there and all gardens combine to form one large Garden which spreads from street to street and land to land.

The real, forever planting begins at home. And the planting can only be done with a gardener's heart, one which was first born of, and taught by, The Great Gardener.

And that is what I've been thinking about lately as I sit with Tom in our cozy little room on his days off and just love being with him. Just spending time with him, reading, watching movies and laughing together at what we see on the screen and making guesses aloud while we watch mysteries...and holding hands across the little table inbetween our chairs.

Not nagging him or trying to change him...just letting him Be who he wishes to Be. Sowing seeds of acceptance and reaping grand surprises.

All the while knowing, realizing, our home has become a greenhouse for seeds of peace. A place where God likes to hang-out in the cool of the evening. A place where He can get away from the arguments and strife He must deal with all day long. I see Him at the door looking almost a bit weary and I love to see Him, later, step away, refreshed by two hearts connected by peace.

Now,any good thing can grow here as long as Tom and I keep the peace. Anything sweet and good can start and grow outward. We've been careful to tend our corner of The Great Garden and who knows what will spread now from our garden plot? But whatever it is, it will be good. 

And the goodness will spread from our corner, outward, and the ripples will be like breezes rustling fields of flowers, weaving and scattering seeds abroad.


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