It’s a tough time to be selling “Peace on Earth.”
In the Christmas Shoppe at the megastore, elves and reindeer move briskly out the door. Nativity scenes in warm pastels are inner-lit with bulbs and cheer. Miles and miles of twinkling lights unwind from endless shelves.
But who is buying “Peace on Earth?”
At first, it seems a quaint anachronism, harking back to simpler times and well-tuned carolers. But now, we fear our neighbors will think us terribly insensitive to be flaunting anything of peace when kids are dying in Kfar Aza, in Gaza, in Kharkiv.
How can the gospel still proclaim a peace on earth that is so rarely lived or loved?
The night sky circling Bethlehem 2000 years ago did not proclaim the end of wars or banish human savagery. What angels sang—and shepherds hoped, and wise men followed, and a weary couple trusted—was that heaven is fully on our side.
There was no war—there is no war—between the heart of God and those He calls His sons and daughters. “For this is how God loved the world: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). The birth of our Messiah sang to fearful, doubting folks like us what always has been true: “God was in Christ personally reconciling the world to Himself—not counting their sins against them” (2 Cor 5:19).
Grace is the anthem of God’s attitude toward us. Peace is His gift for all who choose the Child who was born to us.
So stay in grace. -Bill Knott
BETTER THAN WE KNOW (June 14, 2019)
GRACE KNEELS (June 7, 2019)
SWEET WORD OF GRACE (May 31, 2019)
BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH (May 24, 2019)
GRACE AND SAFETY (May 17, 2019)
PRACTICING GRACE (May 10, 2019)
WHEN GRACE FINDS YOU (May 3, 2019)
BAPTIZE US ANEW (April 26, 2019)
THE RISING SONG (April 19, 2019)
RELEASED FROM FEAR (April 12, 2019)
TRUSTING GRACE (April 5, 2019)
MORNING HAS BROKEN (March 29, 2019)
OUTSIDE AND ABOVE (March 22, 2019)
GRACE BECOMES US (March 15, 2019)
ALWAYS AMAZING (March 8, 2019)
ALL ARE GIFTED (March 1, 2019)
GRACE HAS A FACE (Feb 22, 2019)
FREELY RECEIVED AND GLADLY GIVEN (Feb 15, 2019)
NEW AND BETTER STORIES (Feb 8, 2019)
HEALED—AND HEALED AGAIN (Feb 1, 2019)
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