At 5:55 am I get up of my own accord and walk out onto the balcony. The only child that wakes me is my little mermaid gently rolling and nudging as she attempts to get cozy in her ever-shrinking home.

I watch the clouds and sea, gray with morning slowly slip into soft pinks then brilliant reds. And, all of a sudden, big light breaks.

There is something cliched about watching a sunrise at the beach. And sad. I pray for health and wellness and healing over myself and loved ones. I pray for safety over my children as they sleep. Shouldn't I be just as awed and grateful when I see the sunrise come through the blinds at home? Shouldn't I rise with ease, sneak past my wonderfully breathing child and await this daily miracle at home? Is being allowed one more sunrise at my boring, old address any less of something to be rejoiced over?  When granted those few extra minutes of sleep, shouldn't I give those back in prayer?

Don't get me wrong, the ocean commands a certain respect that my brick ranch fails to demand. And the sound of the waves and smell of the sea are seemingly far more peaceful than my gurgling coffee maker and creaky floors at 6 am. On the surface they are anyway.

The same peace and overwhelming sense of rest I get on my Carolina beaches are offered to me wherever I am.  John 14:27 says "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid." And then when He returned to the disciples after is resurrection He says in John 20:26 "Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”  Of all the things He could have said for the first words to His entire group of disciples He says "Peace be with you."

He gave peace.

He GIVES us peace. The same amount of peace caused by ocean waves is offered to us in our messy chaos. In toddler cries and foot-Lego injuries is the same peace offered in early morning gull cries and beach walks. Deadlines, life-stresses, bills, mortgages, rent, and big decisions. His peace is just as much there as the deafening-thought-clearing-crash of the waves.

All my life the ocean has calmed my nerves and washed my worries, but eternal calm is offered to me daily. I just refuse to take it. I refuse to accept the peace because I assume it surely cannot be obtained in my clutter and crazy. But isn't that the peace that passes all understanding? The kind that comes in the storms and the tantrums and the fights and the heartache and the fears?

Isaiah 26:3-4 You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.

He keeps us in perfect peace. He keeps us.

We are kept and wrapped in peace.

Snuggle into our peace, my loves. In the middle of your normal, non-vacation feeling life...settle into your Savior's arms of peace.