Peace Like a River

Rivers don't always rush through lush, green, well grooves paths. Sometimes they have to carve their own way, and for a season they bring life into their surrounding areas. During the seasons of African desert flooding this is the case. For the months of September though the late winter months the rains come and dried out beds spring to new life from the currents of water that find their way down through the barren land. Lands that seem almost hopeless suddenly find new birth and fresh life.
The Spirit can bring peace in such a way as this. Out of harsh, dry, desolate places new life can suddenly come rushing forward. It's usually right when we are to the brink of hopelessness, wondering when life will ever feel full or vibrant again that we are suddenly brought back to life. God knows.
He knows the cycles of our lives. He knows when peace seems like a relished treasure of the past that we no-longer can even hope for. He knows when we have reached exhaustion- when we have even reached our breaking point. And just when life as we know it starts to crumble and dry up, He fills it. The dried out wasteland of our heart has thirsted for peace for so long, and suddenly it's there. At first it's a trickle that we notice and lap up hungrily, not even believing that it's there. Then more of His love and peace begin to rush in. God fills up the hollowed up cracks and crevices and starts to drench us in His mercy. And then- at long last then- we are so flooded with His abundance that we don't even remember being thirsty. The Spirit has flooded us with peace- that beautiful peace like a river.