What a singular wish! The singular thing about it is the blot in the middle —after you have suffered a little while. What would you think of receiving this wish from a friend?

Yet this is what Peter desired for those to whom he wrote: all the gifts and the graces of the Christ-life in perfection, but not until after they had “suffered a little while.” Peter wrote out of the bitter experience of his own past: he had come into his kingdom too soon; he had obtained his crown before he could support its cares. His faith had been drenched in the brine; his love had been cooled in the judgment hall as he sat by the fire and cried, “I don’t know the man!” (Matthew 26:74).

In essence he is saying, “I do not want you to find the keys too soon.”

He does not want them to be innocent only, pure because there is no temptation, loyal because there is no danger.

There is a peace, which is not the peace of the Son of God. Be not that our peace, O God!

We cannot know Thy stillness until it is broken. There is no music in the silence until we have heard the roar of battle! We cannot see Thy beauty until it is shaded.

After the shadows, the sunlight will come.