Sons and daughters are still on foreign battle fields. The Earth itself stirs and rumbles and destroys homes, whole villages and lives. Brothers fight each other in towns whose names we can't pronounce and yet those mothers mourn with the same intensity as we ourselves. Families are shattered by sudden death, alcoholism, drugs, poverty, anger and violence.
And still we wait for Peace.
One of the powerful messages of Advent is that God did not wait for a world at peace into which to send the Christ. This baby was born into a world torn apart by oppression and Roman Rule. Clans fought each other. Rome collected taxes, held slaves, installed despots and fought with a heavy hand any attempt to rise and claim freedom for oneself or one's people.
Peace is here ~ we wait for it and then find it where we can: in the heart of a mother, in the smile of a baby, in the care and concern of a father; in an act of generosity or kindness to or from a stranger; in the welcome by thousands of volunteers to people in need in shelters across the land; in the attempts of parents to teach their children how to play without bullying or arguing. On and on the list of those small times and places and situations where Peace is present and glows in the sometimes frightening darkness. Those places are here - even as we wait ~ with blessings
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