Day 1 May Photo Challenge: Peace

Peace.
How do you take a picture of peace?
What does peace look like?
It's hard enough to put into words, much less take a picture of it.

Today is May 1, Labor Day here, and a holiday.
I went for a walk at 7am this morning, hoping that first, it would be a few degrees cooler outside than inside and second, hoping that some "peace" scene would jump out at me.

Neither happened.
Instead a verse from Jeremiah kept running through my thoughts:
          "Peace, peace they say, when there is no peace."  

The mosques and prayer places are full of people praying, 5 times daily, seeking peace in this life and in the life to come.  But peace with God is elusive.

We have been given the incredible privilege of knowing the Prince of Peace, the One who came to give us peace in this life and for eternity.
            Peace with the Eternal God.
                   No condemnation.
                         Because of Jesus Christ.
                              What an incredible truth.
                   A truth we came to share.

Sleep can give a momentary sense of outward peace. Here in Niamey, life is lived outside now; sleeping, cooking, eating, visiting.  The little cement or mud brick homes with tin roofs are unbearable in the 115+ degrees.  The hours from 4-8am are the coolest as often a breeze comes up making sleeping a bit easier.  I asked some university students the other day how many slept in their small room that has 2 single beds.  She said there are always 5; three on one single bed and 2 on the other, but now they were sleeping on mats on the roof of the dorm.

Sleep = peace?  Not really but it's the best I can do today.

All along my walk this morning, beds were set up outside in the yards.  Some with mosquito nets draped over them, some were simply mats on the ground.
I was surprised  to see groups of men/boys sleeping on the median of the new road in front of our house.  A couple of them had thin mattresses.  Others slept on benches or any other place they could
find.

  

P.S.  I tried to use the Proverbs verse "Better is a dry crust with  peace  and quiet than a house full of feasting, with strife!" as a reason to not cook today but that didn't fly either.



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