My peace I give you. (John 14:27)

Two painters were once asked to paint a picture illustrating his own idea of rest.  The first chose for his scene a quiet, lonely lake, nestled among mountains far away.  The second, using swift, broad strokes on his canvas. painted a thundering waterfall.  Beneath the falls grew a fragile birch tree, bonding over the foam.  On its branches, nearly wet with the spray from the falls, sat a robin on its nest.  The first paining was simply a picture of stagnation and inactivity.  The second, however, depicted rest.
Outwardly, Christ endured one of the most trouble lives ever lived.  Storms and turmoil, turmoil and storms - wave after wave broke over him until his worn body was laid in the tomb.  Yet His inner life was as smooth as a sea of glass, and a great calm was always there.
Anyone could have gone to him at any time and found rest.  Even as the human bloodhounds were dogging him in the streets of Jerusalem, he turned to his disciples, offering them a final legacy; "My peace."
Rest is not some holy feeling that comes upon us i church.  It is a state of calm rising from a heart deeply and firmly established in God.
    ~ Henry Drummond