There is a phrase I often think of this time of the year. It’s associated with my dad in my thinking. “What do you want for Christmas, daddy?” was our childhood question. To which he almost always replied, “Peace in the valley.”
As children we did not find that answer to be particularly helpful, nor easily understood. I can remember puzzling over it in my thinking: Where is this valley? Why isn’t there any peace there? We did not live in a valley, though we lived near one – Chad valley. Dad’s workplace was located, more or less, in that valley. Maybe that was it? We’d been through valleys on family vacations. The one that comes to mind is Maggie Valley in North Carolina. It was located on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Perhaps they needed peace? But the ease with which dad let his seasonal response roll off his tongue led me to believe there was more to this – this peace, in the valley; this valley peace.
Those of you who know gospel music will recognize this phrase as the title of a song. Continue reading
In Matthew 13:44-46 Jesus shares twin word pictures to describe the value of the Kingdom of God (Kingdom of Heaven). We might call these particular parables “value images” as Jesus tells us that living “a kingdom of God way of life” is like a tenet farmer finding a treasure hidden in a field, or a merchant discovering a pearl of great price. In each situation the finder of these objects is so overtaken by them that he sells all he owns in order to have them. It’s this “all in” behavior that gives me pause with the parables, causing me to ask, “What do we so value in life that makes us willing to cash in everything else?” 
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