2025 Art
Gallery Showing

Theme: Perfect Peace

"I have told you all this so that you will have peace of heart and mind. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows; but cheer up, for I have overcome the world."– John 16:33 (TLB)

Perfect Peace

By Vanessa Brobbel, Manager of Special Projects

“I have said these things to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the
world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
~ John 16:33 ESV

Human imagination and perfect peace…These are the two concepts we are asking Canadian artists to combine for VOMC’s 2025 Art Gallery Showing.

What does “perfect peace” visually look like? Does this peace appear differently for Christians than it does for non-believers? Before answering that question, please indulge this writer by taking the time to read the following short story of mine:

The Voice of the Martyrs has been part of our entire lives. My parents-in-law, Klaas and Nellie Brobbel, became acquainted with the Wurmbrands during the year that my husband Floyd was born, and the Canadian mission was birthed the same month and year that I was born.

It can become difficult to hear all the stories of suffering day after day; and, in some ways, there can be the tendency to close our hearts off a bit to “get the job done.” Dealing with issues involving severe persecution in full-time ministry is not always filled with “praises to the Lord” and “sunshine and buttercups.” It is very easy to get caught up in the tasks of the day. We’re human, and the Lord allows us to go through challenges every once in a while, which rightly draws our attention back to where it should be – zeroing in on why we do what we do, and how much we need to rely on Him in order to do it.

Prior to becoming the CEO of VOMC, Floyd oversaw all of the mission’s International Ministry projects. He travelled frequently, often going into countries from which most people were trying to leave. We faithfully prayed, and still do, over any mission trips either of us must make to ensure that it fulfills God’s plans and purposes rather than merely those of our own.

Years ago, Floyd was planning a ministry trip to the Kenya-Somalia border. This region tends to be quite volatile, and to be a Christian there is a life-threatening proposition. About a week before Floyd was scheduled to leave, I began having a recurring dream that he was meant to go. However, there was also the implication that he may not necessarily be coming home again. I was afraid to say anything to Floyd, but the dream continued every night until the morning he was to leave.

We went out for breakfast together on our way to the airport. During our meal, I finally confessed what had been plaguing my sleep. Unbeknownst to me, Floyd had been sensing the same thing during his prayer times. We both felt absolutely certain he was supposed to go. We just didn’t have any assurances that he would return home.

Needless to say, it was a tearful goodbye at the airport. However, we both love God and have committed our lives to serving Him always, not just when it’s easy. We trust that there is no safer place than in the hands of an eternal, almighty God who was willing to give everything for us. How could we give any less?

I’m always telling our kids: “The Lord is far more interested in your character than your comfort. But He is trustworthy; He won’t destroy you.” I could hear my own words ringing in my ears as I hugged Floyd one more time before he left for his scheduled flight.

After he embarked on that plane, I endured the longest ten days of my life. Whenever Floyd travels, we generally don’t have any contact until he arrives home again – for security reasons, and sometimes due to poor cell phone reception. It is an unexpected treat to hear from him during his overseas trips. So, for the next ten days I waited in “radio silence”….

When Floyd finally did arrive safely back to our country, and he walked off the landed plane, I was immeasurably relieved; and yet left curiously wondering why the Lord would allow us to go through all that uncertainty!

Floyd’s trip was a tremendous success and a monumental boost to his faith walk. He visited one pastor in particular. The man described what it was like to be a Christian there, but added that to be a pastor among people so vehemently opposed to the Gospel was a burden. Then the church leader’s wife commented: “Yes, every day he walks out that door, I have no idea if he will ever walk through it again.”

Those words powerfully struck us. That was why the Lord had allowed us to experience and feel – on a heart level – what those whom we serve go through every day! Each sunrise, they live by faith that no matter what comes their way, the Lord stands right there in the midst of the fire with them. Like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, they can say in each moment: “…our God whom we serve is able to rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if He does not…” still we will follow Him (Daniel 3:17-18 NASB).

William Blake, a 19^th-century poet, visionary and artist, once wrote, “A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.”¹ Another inspiring Christian author, Pastor Richard Wurmbrand, interestingly put it this way in his book,  Victorious Faith: “There was once a fiddler who played so beautifully that everybody danced. A deaf man who could not hear the music considered them all insane. Those who are with Jesus in suffering hear this music to which other men are deaf. They dance and do not care if they are considered insane.”²

For all who faithfully follow Jesus, God promises perfect peace that “surpasses all understanding” (Isaiah 26:3; Philippians 4:7).  His gift of peace is not dependant on the logic of the human mind; instead, it is a product of an eternal perspective – eluding those who have yet to discover the abounding love of our Saviour. Therefore, let us pray that such peace is not beyond their grasp, and that even those who torment and persecute Christians would begin to hear the music and dance!

The calling that God has placed on artists is a great one, for imagination can affect our ability to empathize with others. Just as the telling of my personal story in this article enables readers to imagine my own lived experience, so imagination creatively portrayed tends to make us all more compassionate, gracious and open to wonder. In a world full of God-given wonders, opportunities, gifts and talents, have we become overly fixated on our own needs for comfort and even worldly peace? Have we exchanged our cultural mandate and the Great Commission for ease? Consider the words of this poem by Sir Francis Drake and then contemplate, “What is perfect peace?”

“Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when
with the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,

We have ceased to dream of eternity.
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wilder seas
Where losing sight of land
We shall find the stars.
We ask You to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push back the future 
In strength, courage, hope, and love.

This we ask in the name of our Captain,
Who is Jesus Christ!”³

Endnotes:
¹ William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, John W. Luce and Company, 1906 (Gutenberg.org/files/45315/45315-h/45315-h.htm)   
² Richard Wurmbrand, Victorious Faith, New York: Harper & Row, 1975, p. 62
³ Sir Francis Drake, Disturb Us, Lord, 1577 (SaltLightBlog.com/2015/01/disturb-us-lord-prayer-by-sir-francis.html)