Do you have the Christmas spirit? Every year most of us feel pressure as we enter this season. Traffic is terrible. Finding a parking space close to where you are going is likened to a miracle. The stores are all crowded. There is so much to think about and do: gifts to buy, friends to see, family to visit and care for, programs to attend, parties, budgets, baking, cards, etc.. The list goes on and on, and just writing about it feels exhausting.
As we race through stores and drive in our cars a familiar song plays in the background, “Hark the herald Angels sing, Glory to the newborn King.” We might even be humming along as it continues… “Peace on earth and mercy mild…” Peace, you might muse, what a thought. How great it would be to have peace. “If only I had a moment’s peace.” Have you heard someone say this statement (have you said it yourself)? Yet, is it peace we are after, or are we really longing for an absence of conflict? Are we really seeking to exercise what peace is really about, or do we just want people to stop fighting, and leave us alone? One has to finish the rest of the song to know what peace the songwriter is talking about, “… God and sinner reconciled.” The only One who can give true peace is God, and the peace he offers is so different from the world’s idea of peace. John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give it to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
So often, the peace of the world is really just truce. Truce is a temporary absence of conflict (I have also heard that it is the time when people are re-loading). There is no reconciliation just an agreement to stop the fighting for now all the while allowing the real problem to fester and boil over inside. Peace on the other hand, is the interjection of righteousness into a situation in order to bring about reconciliation. This often causes chaos because people want their way and do not want to consider that they are a part of the problem. Peace involves humility and the realization that I may have to give up my perceived rights, and exercise my responsibilities. When we allow the King of Peace to rule in our hearts and make His desires ours, then we will experience true and lasting peace. The peace that was promised and given through the baby in the manger.
I really like the way Jack Hayford says it, “Wrapped up in Christmas is the greatest gift ever given. Packaged in the Person of Jesus is every gift we will ever need to fulfill every longing we may ever have.” This good news remains untainted by anything that this world offers, and has brought the greatest change (peace) in the hearts of people everywhere who have received it. May your Christmas be filled with His presence and all that comes from knowing Him.
Thanks for reading.
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