This morning, I was out doing my normal chores, checking fence and feeding the dogs.
As the sun began peeking over the trees, I stopped for a moment and looked across the pasture.
The cows weren't grazing.
They were lying peacefully in the grass, almost as if they too were enjoying the sunrise.
Everything was quiet.
And Philippians 4:7 came to mind:
“And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
I think sometimes we confuse peace with having everything under control.
We tell ourselves we'll have peace when the bills are paid, the family is healthy, the equipment is running, the fence is working, and tomorrow looks predictable.
But that's not the peace Paul describes.
God's peace transcends understanding because it doesn't depend upon everything around us being right.
It depends upon knowing that God is still God.
The Fence Still Needs Checked
The sunrise didn't make my responsibilities disappear.
The fence still needed checked. The dogs still needed fed. The cattle still needed cared for.
And that's an important lesson about faith.
God's peace doesn't mean ignoring the problems in front of us. It means facing them without allowing them to control our hearts.
Faith isn't standing in the pasture pretending the fence isn't broken.
Faith is fixing the fence while trusting God with everything beyond it.
We do what God has placed in front of us today and trust Him with tomorrow.
Guarding Our Hearts
I especially love the word Paul uses: guard.
Living around livestock makes that word easy to understand.
A fence establishes a boundary. It keeps the animals from wandering somewhere they don't belong.
Our minds wander too.
Into worry.
Into fear.
Into all the what-ifs of tomorrow.
God's peace guards our hearts and minds from wandering into places where fear wants to take us.
This morning, as I watched the sun rise and those cows lying peacefully in the pasture, I was reminded that I don't have to understand everything God is doing to trust Him.
The problems of life haven't disappeared.
Tomorrow isn't guaranteed to go according to my plans.
But morning still came.
The sun still rose.
And God is still God.
Maybe that's the lesson from the pasture today:
Peace doesn't come from knowing what tomorrow holds.
Peace comes from knowing Who holds tomorrow.