God’s Peace! Do you believe in this peace? Do I believe?
How do we envision this to take place?
Is it the hope of the many or desire of the few? Or simply the desire of one?
When I first visited Bethlehem in the summer
of 2018, it was from a distant edge of the city, just inside the wall. After taking pictures in and around The Walled off Hotel on Caritas
Street, I made my way to a slope that overlooked downtown Bethlehem. The first thing that occurred to me was I
had just passed through an elaborate fenced off passage way that guided me
through the Western Wall into the West Bank.
Later I thought about the significance and relationship of Bethlehem with
Christmas. Throughout the world many of
us celebrate Christmas knowing that there is a link with Bethlehem. We celebrate the birth of Christ, Mary and hear the
words of peace, joy, and love. However,
when I was standing in Bethlehem, I saw the relationship from a different
perspective. How can we celebrate fully the
joys of Christmas without there being godly peace in Jerusalem and Bethlehem? What if the hope of heavenly peace was born
anew in the land and in our hearts? That
is my new hope for Christmas. Not a
secular peace, nor a divided sense of peace.
Rather, a godly peace that is both human and divine that transcends our
sense of time. The market may crash and
the dollar may fall, but let the hope of peace and justice like the cedars stand tall.
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| Downtown Bethlehem in the Distance |
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| The Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem, Westbank |
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| Closeup of the Western Wall near The Walled Off Hotel |
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| Closeup of the Western Wall near The Walled Off Hotel |
O Bethlehem of Ephrathah,
who are one of the little clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
one who is to rule in Israel,
whose origin is from of old,
from ancient days….
And he
shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord,
in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
And they shall live secure, for now he shall be great
to the ends of the earth;
and
he shall be the one of peace (Mich 4:4-5).
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