The longing for peace is one we are all familiar at one time or another. The Psalmist echoes this desire in both the question “how long?” and in the affirmation that “you alone, O Lord, make me lie down in safety.” Psalm four petitions the Lord, “O that we might see some good!” But even through the bad, the Psalmist can lay down in comfort and security in the arms of the Lord.

This image reflects this quest for peace or safety. This young woman has found a place where she can lie down and sleep in peace, as the title This is Where I Find My Peace indicates. This space for her is one in which she feels secure enough to close her eyes and rest. Her hands show a release of the tensions of her life as she lies in the grass. The photograph captures her peace and abandon. Oh that we should be as lucky as this young woman to find a place of rest in times of trouble, somewhere that troubles can be caught up in the gentle breeze and drift away.

The Psalmist reminds us that we do in fact have a place to “lie down and sleep in peace.” The Lord is a place of security and rest even when the rest of the world is falling apart, even when we are in distress, even when we have turned away. We must trust in the Lord that wherever we lay our heads will be places of peace where we can let it all go, where we can give it all to God so long as we rest in the Sovereign’s arms. -- Maggie Jarrell