World Peace

“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb,
The leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
The calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
And a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze;
Their young ones shall lie down together;
And the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole,
And the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den.
They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,
For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord
As the waters cover the sea.” – Isaiah 11:6-9

I was thinking the other day about all the things I ask of God.  There are big things like to heal those that are terminally ill, and then there are little things like a good parking spot at Wal-Mart.  I tend to just ask for stuff all the time.  I mean, He’s listening – why not ask? 

Then I wondered, if we could all ask God for anything, what would it be?  What would you ask for?

We’ve all been asked at some time what we would wish for if we could get three wishes.  I usually say that the first wish would be for an infinite number of additional wishes to be granted.  (Feel free to stop and pray now, thanking God that I didn’t get it! What a mess we’d all be in if He had given that!)  But most of the time when the question is raised, someone will say ‘world peace’.  It’s a noble answer and one that seems to be possible only by the granting of a magical wish. 

Imagine what world peace would be like.  If everyone in the world was content, at peace with each other, then things would be wonderful.  Granted, they would be much better than they are today, but we would still have problems.  We would still have issues with elements of weather, the decay of the world itself, and all of nature.  There would still be famine and disease.

We think so much smaller than God does.  When we imagine world peace, we figure that’s as good as it can get.  But it’s sort of like the little kid that asks for his two front teeth for Christmas without asking that no more teeth fall out!  God can “able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20). Yet because we cannot imagine it, we ask for less than possible.  We are small thinkers with an unimaginably powerful God.

World Peace? God has already granted us that wish, and even more, in the span of eternity.  In Isaiah 11 we’re told that when God’s Kingdom is given to God’s children, even nature itself will be at peace.  Shepherds won’t have to protect their sheep from wolves, because they’ll be at peace.  Lions will be led by children, and bears and cows will graze the same fields.  Children can play with snakes, and yes, that makes me cringe too, but when it happens, we will be at ease with it.

We think small when we ask God for things, even when we think they are big things.  His thoughts are so much bigger than ours, not encapsulated within dates and times, nor left to only what we can see as possible.  World Peace - that’s a small thing with God. He’s already planned to one-up us on that request.

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts” – Isaiah 55:8-9

Thank you God, that your ability isn’t defined within the realm of our understanding.