Peace like a river
I love road trips. I don’t mind flying places, but the older Ben and I get, the less we enjoy the stress of airports and security and expensive bad food and cramped little seats with someone’s knees pushing into your back for five hours. So we drive when we can. I can drive long distances, and since I’m the one that does most of the driving in our family (thank you, head-on car accident and resulting PTSD), it works out.
The other day I was driving somewhere by myself when the song “It Is Well with My Soul” came on. The first line stopped me:
When peace like a river attendeth my way …
and I quick shut the radio off.
Peace like a river. The first thing that came to mind was the little children’s song that goes
I’ve got peace like a river
I’ve got peace like a river
I’ve got peace like a river in my soul ...
If you’ve ever been to a Baptist vacation Bible school, you’ve sung it.
I asked myself, how is peace like a river? Why do at least two song writers compare peace to a river, and does God do it too?
When I got home, I looked it up in the Bible and found this verse, Isaiah 66:12
For thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream: then shall ye suck, ye shall be borne upon her sides, and be dandled upon her knees.
“I will extend peace to her like a river …”
“Her” is Jerusalem. God will make everything right in the end. He wins. After all the turmoil and tribulation Jerusalem has endured over the years, in the end, God will extend his peace to her.
But he likens his peace to a river. On this day, during this drive, that thought caught my complete attention and I wondered, how is peace like a river?
Now listen, I say all the time I am no Bible scholar. I don’t know Hebrew and Greek, only English. I’ve never been to Bible college. But I do have some experience with rivers.
I grew up on the New Jersey shore, surrounded by rivers that connected to the ocean right there in our back yard. My family spent a few summers traveling around the country in our camper, seeing all the natural beauty that makes up America. As an 11, 12, and 13-year-old I fished more rivers than I can remember in 48 of the 50 states. From quiet little creeks to rushing, roaring, mountain torrents to the mile-wide mighty Mississippi that looks like it’s barely moving but has been known to carry whole towns away, I’ve been around rivers.
So how is peace like a river? Here are a few ways I thought of.
1. A river moves.
By definition, a river is not a still body of water. It flows. It has a beginning—the headwaters—and it constantly moves toward its end. And because it moves, it moves us. Peace doesn’t leave us languishing in one place. It carries us from a beginning of worry to an end of confidence.
2. A river flows faster when it’s fed.
Right now we are visiting friends in middle Tennessee near the Buffalo River. Every spring when the heavy rains come, the Buffalo and surrounding creeks start rising, and some years the water comes up so high all the surrounding pastures are completely underwater. Some of the houses here are built on pilings because people have learned the floods will come again. And when the floods come, the water will be rushing. It will drag anything in its path downstream, taking out bridges and highways and cattle and carrying them miles downstream.
Feed a river more water and it will flow faster. Feed yourself with more of Jesus and the flow of peace will speed up.
3. A river doesn’t dry up except in drought.
Just like feeding a river produces a more powerful river, starving it will dry it up. Neglect a river and you won’t have any water left. You’ll be dry and lifeless. A river can’t exist without being fed. Neither can peace.
4. In straight places you can’t see a river move, but in the curves and over rocks you can see its power.
I once stood on Mud Island in Memphis, Tennessee, watching the Mississippi River flow past me. I could not see any movement at all when I looked at the parts of the river that were straight. It appeared to be standing still. The water was moving as it always does, but I couldn’t see its movement.
But when I looked at obstacles in the river—curves, bridges, boulders, and islands—I could see the water rushing around and over them. Isn’t life just like that? We don’t really notice peace when things are going along smoothly. It is just assumed to be there. But throw a few obstacles in the mix—a lost job, a diagnosis, a difficult family situation—and we can see the powerful rush of water. Peace is so much more noticeable when life gets hard and we learn how much we need it.
5. Over time a river wears away the rough edges.
Water is one of the most powerful forces in nature, smoothing whatever it touches. Like a river changes the terrain it flows through, God’s peace changes me. It smoothes the sharp, cutting parts of life and softens my rough edges too.
6. A river brings life-giving water to everything around it.
Land alongside a river is full of lush, green life. The river makes things grow. Peace does the same for me. It keeps me green and thriving.
7. A river offers a way to get us from one place to another.
A river takes us from here to there. From frustration and despair to confidence that God is in control. We just sit in our little kayak and it carries us along. Sometimes we dip in a paddle to give ourselves the illusion of steering, but in reality peace takes us where we need to be. It reminds us to let go and let God do the carrying.
When peace like a river attendeth my way
When sorrows like sea billows roll
Whatever my lot thou hast taught me to say
It is well, it is well with my soul.
Cowmom, great insights on peace! When peace does flow from God it is like a river!👏🏻