“And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.” Colossians 3:15 (ESV)

Two of our deepest spiritual needs are peace and gratitude.   God calls us to a peaceful existence with grateful hearts.  When we experience a flood of restless thoughts or wave upon wave of hardship,  we are to be grateful for God’s lasting peace to weather and endure the storms.  In waiting on God and enduring hardship with gratitude, we are sustained fully by the gift of God’s peace.  

Noah experienced the peace of God in a flood that overwhelmed the world for 40 days and nights; he waited calmly for the sign of land, continued to believe and trust God, and was delivered a dove and olive branch. Noah then knew God’s peace came over the whole earth. 

“After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth.”

Photo: Yosemite National Park, California