“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
Luke 2:14
In the season of our Savior's birth, we often reflect on the past year, and like the few before it, 2023 has been filled with many surprises and horrors, including another war. I taught in Kenya that we have great hope in the midst of the crazy we see all around us, and that I do believe, but I'm often reminded this time of year of a U2 song, Peace On Earth, which is a thoughtful prayer-like song to God, begging for peace from all the war. Some of the lyrics go like this...
Heaven on Earth
We need it now
I'm sick of all of this
Hanging around
Sick of sorrow
Sick of the pain
Sick of hearing
Again and again
That there's gonna be
Peace on Earth....
Jesus, can you take the time
To throw a drowning man a line?
Peace on Earth
Tell the ones who hear no sound
Whose sons are living in the ground
Peace on Earth
No whos or whys
No-one cries like a mother cries
For Peace on Earth
She never got to say goodbye
To see the color in his eyes
Now he's in the dirt
Peace on Earth
While I often resonate with the words of this song and Bono's desire for world peace I am also reminded of Jesus' words in John 16:33, '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.” These words also resonate greatly with me, reminding me that if I seek my peace in the peace of the world, I will always be disappointed. Still, when I realize that the peace of God is realized in His Son Jesus, I can take heart, and know that what God started, He will finish, and that even though Christmas is a great time to reflect on the birth of Christ, we know that it ended on His cross, when His Father said no to His own Son's request to remove the cup of death. He said no to His Son, so that we could find His peace in His Son, and live with a great hope that this mess on earth, will one day be nullified.
This past couple of years, death has been all around; from friends and teammates dying to my friend's parents dying to my cousin's husband dying, it's been a hard few years, and it forces me to do what I train my pastors to do; rather than looking at your circumstances and then making sense out of God, look at God and let Him make sense out of your circumstances, because when we do the former, we will always have a God we deem untrustworthy. In this season of Peace and Hope, I pray that we place our hope in the only person who can re-right the wrongs of this world in His Son, who was born on Christmas day 2000 years ago! Blessings to you and Merry Christmas!