The sound was arresting. Having awakened from a deep sleep, the quietness was being penetrated by the cooing of a dove close by. Somewhat reflectively, I found myself in northern Pennsylvania remembering the first morning of our honeymoon when the stillness of our cabin had been penetrated with the sounds of dove, whip-poor-will, and bob-white.
Now my mind was moving to Scripture. The thought of Noah in the ark; the sending forth of a raven who so loved the refuse it found that it did not return. Then Noah sent forth the dove; it went and returned with a leaf in its beak. Seven days elapsed before he sent forth the dove again… this time it did not return. Those who had entered the ark had been saved; the devastation wrought had already begun its recovery and the picturesque setting has become a symbol of peace to this day.
It was the symbol employed by God in confirming the ministry of his Son, Jesus. The symbol was sufficiently significant to warrant adherence to the entrance into the ark… Christ. Sense the freshness of that moment, when He, like Noah, “reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark”. (Genesis 8:9)
Peace! It is what God promises when one is “justified by faith”. (Romans 5:1) It is what Christ promised in John 14:27 — “Peace I leave with you”. It is what the world seeks, and possibly you; it will only be found in Jesus Christ!
ETCetera 