Peace

And the land had rest from war. -Joshua 14:15

That sounds so good. That's what the U.S. needs... rest from war. That's what this whole world needs. I looked up world peace on the internet.  If it has ever happened, it certainly hasn't been in the last 200 years. There has always been at least one conflict major enough to have been given a name since at least 1792 which is as far as I checked.

With our country actively at war, recovering from two hurricanes and a major wild fire, and the terrible political climate with the violence it has created, we are all looking for rest. In my last devotion, I criticized the violence in the book of Joshua. But we really are not much better today. We may have "war laws" that try to keep civilians out of it, but civilians are hurt and killed in our wars anyway. We may have "war laws" about how we treat prisoners, but they change and/or are ignored. I don't think there could ever really be a "civilized" war.

Maybe our world is just set up for conflict, but it would be so nice to have a year or two of peace.

God of Peace, 

I pray that our world may taste that rest from war and violence and disaster. We may find that we like it and work harder to preserve it. Amen.