If we were to commission a poll, I would predict that an overwhelming majority of people would say that they are in favor of peace. It has a very high approval rating and likeability score. Loving peace, by itself, is not controversial.
But what does it mean to love peace? Does it mean that we love being comfortable? For us Christians, does it mean that we love the peace that results from knowing in the depth of our being that our God deeply loves us, that there is nothing we can do that will separate us from God’s love, and that because of God’s love the worst things that this life and this world may bring are never the last thing? Well, yes. Yes, it does.
But being a lover of peace is not just a state of mind, or a condition. It’s much, much more. It is also a verb. Being a true lover of peace means that we work to bring God’s peace to the world. That we risk leaving behind our own comfortable, peaceful lives. That we follow God into the wilderness and work to build up God’s reign.
This Advent, as we celebrate and remember that God humbled Himself by coming into the wilderness of creation to establish God’s reign, may we be inspired to do the same.
