A peace which overshadows

When I first read these words, the word love replaced peace. A love which overshadows. How big would that love have to be? I tried to imagine that big a love emanating from me. It would have to cover George W. Bush, Darfur, fundamentalists and extremists of all kinds, AIDS, politicos of all stripes, liars, murderers, drug dealers, all the things I have, upon occasion, judged as “wrong.” Who am I to know what’s right and what’s wrong for every individual on earth? What I know is that my personal ability to love sometimes has judgment attached to it.

Then I had an idea: what if there were a peace which overshadows? A peace SO BIG—like the arms of a toddler swearing how much she loves her mama and papa—that it would cover all those judgments and that puny personal love. This same piece is characterized in Christian Scripture as “the peace that passes all understanding.”

I understood that phrase differently than I had before. MY understanding isn’t big enough. No matter how hard I try. No matter what I do. Fortunately, it doesn’t need to be. I can’t understand what makes bad things happen on earth. Natural disasters, global warming, interpersonal cataclysms, national disputes. They’re too big.

What I can understand is a Mysterious Peace. A peace at the center of each being and the universe. Even if it’s only theoretical. Truthfully, I get glimpses of it when I meditate. I dip into the Central Peace. Peace at the core. It is this which allows me to believe that there is a peace which overshadows. If you can’t see it right now, that’s okay. I’ll keep looking at it till you do.