I’m joining today with the Five Minute Friday community of writers who write for 5 minutes about a one-word prompt.

Today’s writing prompt is PEACE.

I sit, cross-legged, on my bedroom floor next to a space heater as the images of iced-over branches come to me through frosted windows. 

The unrest of this week greets me like a bleak midwinter’s dream and I can sense the unsettledness down deep in my bones. 

The words missiles, bombings, and invasion don’t leave me feeling hopeful. They do nothing but heighten the fear, the uncertainty that has seemed to grip this world for the past two years. 

My dry bones cry out, will this heartache ever end?

Does the pain have a stopping point? Do wounds ever really heal? Is wholeness on this side of heaven even possible? Is peace really a promise?

As I retreat further into my own head, the thoughts of despair grow tirelessly, the what-ifs stretching on for miles. 

But then, a glimmer of hope breaks through all the pitch-black as the sacred words of my Savior bubble up from the depths of my being. 

“I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.” (NLT)

There it is, the promise of peace my mind wants to forget. 

My attention wanders over to Peter, one of Jesus’ most beloved disciples. 

“But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

“Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” (Matt. 14:27-28, NIV)

“Come.” Said Jesus to Peter in Matthew 14:29.

And so, Peter went. 

He walked on water and we can too until we lose sight of our Savior and Who He is amidst the storm. 

“Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” 

Peace. 

It comes when you can’t cling to anything else. 

“But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?” (Matt. 14:30-31, NIV)

Peter cried out, Jesus saved. 

We cry out, and Jesus still saves. 

He still reaches for each of us, even those in faraway lands where war and the thirst for power break loose like evil running rampant. 

Peter’s story is my story, and I have a feeling it’s yours too. So what do we do when lives are taken senselessly as sirens blare and people created in the image of God lose their homes and their hope?

As all seems to sink lower and lower, we remember to cry out, “Lord, save us!”

It’s then we cling to the truth that peace is still a promise, even in the middle of a war. 

And as I sit and ponder and worry over what I can’t control, I can’t help but think that our prayers of peace are the gift we need to keep on giving in the middle of all that’s unknown. 

Because there is one thing that can be known: peace is a promise God keeps.