Peace in Your Relationships
The wolf and the lamb will feed together. The lion will eat hay like a cow. But the snakes will eat dust. In those days no one will be hurt or destroyed on my holy mountain. I, the Lord, have spoken!
Isaiah 65:25
Birds and cats are not normally best friends. That’s why the video I watched surprised me. A couple had documented the relationship of a crow and a stray kitten for a period of eight months. For several hours each day, the crow and the kitten could be seen playing together. Whenever the kitten began to cross the road, the crow would start squawking at it or hop around, pushing it back toward safety. The crow would also feed the kitten with its own preferred cuisine—a diet of worms and bugs—no doubt saving its life. Now that’s one nice crow and one fortunate kitty!
Watching that video of the two unlikely friends reminded me of God’s promise that one day the lamb would have nothing to fear from the wolf because every creature in the world would reflect God’s peace. It made me think, too, of Paul’s words to the Romans: “We know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering” (8:22-23).
Some of the pain and suffering we endure comes from the strife we experience in relationships, broken and twisted by sin. We find it hard to get along with certain people at home, at work, and at church. Because of what Jesus has done for us and because his Spirit lives in us, nothing is impossible for the God who is able to heal even our most fractured relationships.
Don’t wait for the Second Coming to begin to pray about your own difficult relationships. Ask God for grace and wisdom for yourself and the people you find difficult. Who knows what unlikely friendships you may be able to forge as a result of God’s peace at work within and through you.
Father, help me to be ruthlessly honest about ways I have contributed to problems in my relationships. Help me to repent and to be willing to do whatever it takes to respond to the grace you will give me as I seek greater peace in the way I relate to others.