Peace
Read Luke 2:13-14.
13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
14 “Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”[a]
You know that game you used to play as a kid (or still play on occasion now) where you imagine what you would say if a genie appeared granting you three wishes? Perhaps you wanted a certain toy or to go on a trip somewhere far away. But do you remember one of the most common wishes? Maybe we meant it or maybe we felt like we had to say it—but most of us, at some point, wished for world peace.
We were asking for our version of peace on earth—no more fighting, sadness, sickness, or death. All would be right in our eyes, if only peace came to earth. But didn’t we talk just yesterday about how peace did come through Jesus’ birth? Yet we look around and see that our world is still full of hard and scary things.
Despite what we read in today’s Scripture reading, Jesus’ birth and work on earth didn’t bring peace in the way that we might imagine. Like we learned yesterday, He brought peace between people and God, and through that reconciliation, He also made a way for peace between people. But as long as there is sin in the world—and there will be until Jesus returns—we won’t see peace (the kind we imagine) over all the earth. We will continue to witness devastating and frightening things.
So how do we respond when we look around at the state of the world? One thing we can do is lament—we can be honest, expressing our sadness and even anger to God over the state of the world. Christmas isn’t often the time where we focus on lament, but it’s a good practice nonetheless. Because of Jesus, we have access to God, through the Spirit. We can pour out our feelings to Him, knowing that He is listening and compassionate when His children come to Him.
A genie will never grant our wishes for world peace, but we have something so much better. We have Jesus, who has made peace between us and God, and we have the assured hope that He will one day return again to make all things right in the world.
[Matt Chandler (2021). (p. 35). Family Advent Devotional - Bible Study eBook. Lifeway Press. Retrieved from https://read.lifeway.com]