Tuesday, December 13, 2005
PERFECT PEACE
PERFECT PEACE
By Berit Kjos
Dec 13 2005 05:00AM
There once was a King who offered a prize to the artist who would paint
the best picture of peace. Many artists tried. The King looked at all
the pictures, but there were only two he really liked and he had to
choose between them.
One picture was of a calm lake. The lake was a perfect mirror for
peaceful towering mountains were all around it. Overhead was a blue sky
with fluffy white clouds. All who saw this picture thought that it was
a perfect picture of peace.
The other picture had mountains too. But these were rugged and bare.
Above was an angry sky from which rain fell, in which lightening
played. Down the side of the mountain tumbled a foaming waterfall. This
did not look peaceful at all.
But when the King looked, he saw behind the waterfall a tiny bush
growing in a crack in the rock. In the bush a mother bird had built her
nest. There, in the midst of the rush of angry water, sat the mother
bird on her nest ... perfect peace.
Which picture do you think won the prize?
The King chose the second picture.
Do you know why?
"Because," explained the King, "peace does not mean to be in a place
where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work. Peace means to be in
the midst of all those things and still be calm in your heart. That is
the real meaning of peace."
-- A Wardrobe from the King, Berit Kjos, pp. 45-46
PRAYER
"Teach us, good Lord, to serve you as you deserve, to give and not to
count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds, to toil and not to
seek for rest, to labor and not to ask for any reward, save that of
knowing that we do your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Prayer
of Ignatius Loyola)
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