Week 4 of Advent- PEACE


This week we light the final candle of our Advent wreath- the candle of PEACE

The words Peace and Christmas seem like an Oxymoron, because even since the 1st Christmas was anything but peaceful, it was chaotic and messy. If you think about it Mary's world got turned upside down, and Joseph got thrown into a world-wind, then they had to travel to Bethlehem with Mary being pregnant on a donkey, only to get there and have no place to stay, and give birth in a dirty barn with no other place to lay the baby than on a manger filled with hay.

 And in our present day version of Christmas is also filled with peace challenging moments like crazy drivers, filled parking lots, long lines at the stores, packed schedules, family gets little too close for comfort and dynamics get tense, money get tight and debt grows, sweet kids become ungrateful... In other words we get too frazzled and too distracted to remember WHAT this Holiday is all about and WHO we are actually celebrating.

But Mary teaches us in the Bible how she not only trusted God in all that was happening, but she treasured every moment and pondered them in her heart. She choose to keep her focus on God, on trusting it would all work out, to be still, and fully experience all the miracles that God was doing all around her even though her life was unpredictable and chaotic.

This only shows us that PEACE does not depend on our circumstances. It comes from learning to trust God, to set our hearts on true and lasting things not on temporary and worldly ones, it comes from having the confidence that God will take care of us because He loved us so much He sent His son to be a helpless tiny baby to save us and repay a debt that us - undeserving sinners- would have never been able to repay.

Peace comes from saying YES to God and the life He wants us to live and NO to the world and the things society tempts us with.

As we light this last candle lets make it an intention not only for the holidays but for all year to be messengers of peace and spread it to all those around us. For others see Jesus in us as we humbly serve and as we love with patience, compassion, kindness, and grace no matter what comes our way.

Luz

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