In an art gallery in Florence, Italy, as you walk in there, there are two paintings side by side.

And as you look at them from a distance, they look alike.

And you would wonder who would paint two paintings and who would make a decision to put two paintings and look alike next to each other.

But then in closer examination, you're going to discover that there really are a contrast.

One painting has a picture of a stormy sea with wild waves, and there is lightning flashing in the sky.

And then in the midst of this raging water, you see a face of a man,

obviously drowning with a picture of despair and horror expressed on his face. The painting right

next to it shows an ocean, the same kind of ocean,

tossed with an equally violent tempest, but in the midst of the water is huge rock against which

those white cap breakers dash in vain. In the cervix of this boulder, you see a pigeon sitting in her nest, quiet, serene, peaceful, in the midst of the wild fury of the element. Peace, in the midst of the wild fury of the element. Peace in the midst of the storm is the title of that

painting. Peace is the desire of all peoples. Peace is on the lips of every politician around the

world. Peace is what the heart wants.

In fact, it was President Ford in his book A Time to Heel,

tells a story that took place during the Civil War in Greece in 1948.

A villager was planning to immigrate to the United States.

But before he left his village, he met with his weary, beleaguered, poverty-stricken neighbors.

And he said to them, what do you want me to send you from the United States?

Should I send you food? Should I send you money? Should I send you clothing?

No, said one of his wise neighbors. If you can, send us a ton of peace.

Peace of mind is what all people long for, and yet it seems to elude most of them.

Most people identify with the painting where the man is drowning than they do with

the pigeon in her nest in the cervix of the boulder. Yet our Bible is a Bible of peace.

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