Knowing Peace

I originally bought my giving key for a sister. I never planned on wearing it and I wasn't in a place where I felt like I needed the word imprinted on the key.."PEACE" I was about 2 weeks away from being engaged and couldn't think of a better stage of life to be in.
The sweet friend I was thinking of when I bought the key has a special connection with peace. Her mom battled cancer for 10 years and this past June went to go dance with Jesus. Even as an 11 year old, my sister never prayed for healing..only peace. So naturally when I saw the necklace I thought, "Super cute! Super meaningful! NAILING IT!"

A week and a half later I was far from the ideal little life I had been living in when I bought the key. My relationship had ended one day, completely out of the blue. I felt stripped of all normalcy and in those moments I realized that I had been depending far more on that boy than I had been depending on my God. Grasping for something more than my unshakable feeling of falling, my hands wrapped around that little gold key and the word seemed to press into my palm so hard I could feel it on my heart. PEACE. I didn't know yet, but the next month would be the hardest one I had ever faced. What the world didn't know was I had a secret weapon. I had a key imprint in my fingers more days then I didn't. I would hold onto that word with all of my strength and remember "The LORD is peace"

When I went and stayed with my friend, I was reminded that she was the reason that I got the necklace in the first place. We talked for hours, as sisters do, about all of the things. She was about to jump headfirst into Africa. She wanted to be the hands and feet and she was ready and she was going. She didn't know what that meant or what it looked like or where exactly she would be, but she knew that God was pulling on her heart and He wasn't letting up. She was leaning on peace again and I didn't even know if she realized it. I took the necklace off and laid it on her nightstand before we went to sleep that night. I knew that it was her time to have that reminder hang close to her heart like it had mine.