May 3

           It seemed like it was the first morning in  quite a while when there were no immediate deadlines, no impending appointments, no delayed obligations to be met, no matters on which I had to focus my thoughts and energies.  Most things that seemed recently to have driven me weren’t worries; they had not intimidated me.  But they had demanded my focus and my action.  Now my calendar was blank for a day or so, and I felt a good kind of tiredness.  So, I rested, and in so doing, dozed off.

            Suddenly, the ringing of the phone roused me out of semi-consciousness. I knew it was the phone.  My senses seemed to be reacting to an emergency; my un-focused mind suddenly sent out feelers to this phone call for an emergency, a forgotten appointment, a reason to suddenly get myself in gear and going. I felt a  bit of panic as I scrambled to acquaint myself to the time of day it was and to what this phone call might be about.

            And then suddenly it all fell into place.  The phone call was a wrong number; the time of day was morning; I had fallen half asleep in rest; and the only things at hand were the daily duties we handle almost absent-mindedly.  God’s peace that had caused me to sleep hushed my unfocused thoughts and energies like the loving hug of a parent who quiets a child’s confusion.

            How quickly and surely and wondrously the love of God restores our perspective!  Life can be demanding and doing the things and responsibilities of life can be exhausting. But if God’s loving presence is one to which our hearts are tuned, then the words of Paul are wonderfully borne out: “…the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:7)