Recently, I was watching an interview on a news channel of a man who served as a soldier in Iraq. He was telling about a time he was trapped, alone and surrounded by the enemy. The situation looked hopeless, and his thoughts were of his wife and daughter. But, he said, “I made peace with God right then. I’ve never felt so much peace. I was ready to die.”
Thankfully, he survived. But it made me think about “peace.”
Peace is the absence of conflict, fear or anything that causes distress — isn’t that right? Beyond the intensity of a foxhole, we likely experience the whole of life as an invasion of distress and a suppression of peace. Worries and fears for health, family, relationships, finances, political polarization, the economy, a nasty virus — on and on the distresses of life are stacked upon us like the pile of dry bones in Ezekiel’s vision.
So much about life on this planet is experienced not as peaceful, but as exactly the opposite. Even more, the distresses of life can pile so high, we even experience it as a power — and even an evil power that Martin Luther named with a triad of words: “sin, death, and the power of the Devil.”
The prevalence of fallenness is experienced on a global level, as well as in the personal lives of each and every one of us who has ever walked on this planet. As the Apostle Paul writes, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12).
Given that, can anyone have peace? And how can anyone have peace unless they first have peace with a God who vanquishes “sin, death, and the power of the Devil”?
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you,” says Jesus (John 14:27).
Jesus came, and comes, to give the peace of God that passes all understanding.
As we approach Christmas, be reminded that the Prince of Peace came to earth. He came on a peaceful night on the outskirts of a small town named Bethlehem. Heaven’s angels could not contain their joy, singing at the top of their lungs, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” (Luke 2:14).
Peace in our hearts begins when we have peace with God. And you can have this peace — even in a foxhole — because God, in Bethlehem’s Baby, came to defeat all the enemies that threaten you. And by his gracious gift, the God of Peace extends his peace to you.
Go forth in his peace.
