Peace is a highly sought-after commodity. We seek after peace among nations, peace in our marriages, peace on the playground! But peace is much more than the absence of conflict – it is the presence of great calm, prosperity and good.

In the great depths of the ocean the pressure is enough to crush a submarine like an empty Coke can. In order to explore the ocean depths, oceanographers have built bathyspheres. They are like miniature submarines constructed out of several inches thick steel plates and small, thick panes of glass for observation. Their construction prevents the crushing pressure of the ocean on the outside from reaching the scientists on the inside. Once a bathysphere is lowered to the ocean floor and the flood lights are turned on, the scientists inside can observe fish with very thin skins. So why don’t they implode from the pressure? Those fish have pressure inside them equal and opposite to the pressure outside. They are able to swim freely and easily where we would be destroyed.

That is what peace is like. Peace on the inside is equal and opposite of all the stresses and pressures crushing us from the outside. And how do we get that peace?

The prophet Isaiah gave us the answer: “For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Jesus, the Prince of Peace, promised, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.”