Peace

by Kelly Knowlden

In the1960’s there was a group of young people that made “peace” be their mantra. They drew peace symbols on everything they could think of and used it as their greeting and their benediction. Their focus was on desiring war to cease, racial tensions to be non-existent and for people to generally get along. By the end of the movement, they were willing to fight for their ideals.

Almost two thousand years before that, there was another group announcing the same thing. It was their greeting and their benediction. It was spoken into a world on the verge of war. It came to people who knew the rankings of class, the discrimination of race, and the oppression of power.

There were several major differences. The former peace-speakers were focused on the outward circumstances that they felt needed changing. They were clueless as to what the basic problem was that caused these circumstances. They only knew that people needed to get along - to just LOVE ONE ANOTHER - but how to do that was outside the scope of their thinking.

The latter peace-speakers were messengers. Their announcement was not a hopeful idea - but rather a reality in the making. They knew that the real problem was that man is rebellious at heart... that he always thinks he is better than others and will find all kinds of reasons to fortify that belief: race, class, intelligence, looks, money, power, etc. They also knew that God did not design man for that kind of existence. Instead, God designed man to be His friend. Because of man’s insistence on being his own god and trying to figure out how to run his world most effectively, he is at enmity with his Creator.

So the peace-messengers were really speaking a wonder: “The Creator God is coming to solve your most basic problem and make peace with you!” As you see the Christmas season unfold, remember this: “For unto you this day a Savior is born; He is Christ the Lord”... on earth there is peace to men who submit to His rule.