“Peace, peace, to those far and near,” says the Lord. “And I will heal them.” Isaiah 57:19

My devotions brought me to Isaiah 57 on a dark December morning. The glow from the Christmas lights on the mantel and windowsills was warm and peaceful, reflecting what my soul craved.

Christmas is often hard for me. Postpartum depression twenty-five years ago, compounded with grief, set off a yearly pattern of seasonal depression I’ve struggled with until this year. Last year, I asked God to redeem fall. Over the last year, I’ve realized God has redeemed fall and done a work in my life. I couldn’t put words to it until I read Isaiah 57:19 this morning.

Peace, peace, to those far and near. And I will heal them. 

This is what happened in 2024. God has healed me, and I am at peace.

The Missing Piece Peace

They say you don’t know what you’re missing until you experience something different. That’s what this Isaiah 57 moment identified. In 2024, God started a healing journey with a box of old journals I found when we cleaned our attic. The journals began at age 12, a gift from my sister, who saw my writing talent and gave them as a Christmas gift.

As I read the journals, I traveled with the carefree twelve-year-old as she journeyed into darkness and mental illness as she lived with both anorexia and bulimia. The journals were painful to read until they abruptly stopped in college. As I revisited the pain, depression, self-loathing, and shame I carried as a young girl, it informed some of the same narratives I still carried over forty years later.

Shame.

Self-loathing.

And an intensive search for peace.

As I processed some of my past with a spiritual director, God gently came in and tended to the parts of me that still held those narratives and beliefs. Jesus journeyed with me through the memories and pain. And peace came. It was not like a flood but a gentle pouring out of water on a dry land that needed small increments of grace and love to seep deeply into the crevices and saturate the weakest and deepest roots.

A Gentle Whisper

The Isaiah verse was a finishing touch to the peace I’ve felt as I walked through life’s troubles. Pain and challenging things had not shipwrecked my emotions and thoughts when shame and self-loathing informed what I believed about myself and God.

Instead, I felt peace alongside sadness or pain in unsettling, complex, or hurtful experiences. In that peace, I recognized the change the Holy Spirit was doing in me.

These weren’t grand moments but quiet spaces where, like the gentle whisper in 2 Kings, Elijah softly experienced God’s presence. This is peace. This is healing. Isaiah 57:19 was like a balm that sealed a yearlong healing process from the inside out.

Peace is Christ

Isaiah 57:19 encompasses Christmas. Christ came for peace and healing. Through his birth, death, and resurrection, we reconcile with God, others, and ourselves. We have new life on earth and eternal life after death. We have hope in uncertainty, peace in pain, and light in the darkness.

This holiday season, I offer this verse as an invitation to the gift of peace and healing through a relationship with Jesus Christ. If you don’t know Christ personally as your Savior, you can learn more here.

If you have a relationship with Jesus but are searching for peace and healing, ask him for it. He will provide it. It will be beautiful. It will be complete. It will change your life.

Will you join me in this journey of peace and healing?

Lord, Jesus, bring your peace into my life and heal what needs healing. Be near to me this holiday season. Please show me your presence and peace, as I need it. Thank you for doing so now. Amen.