For a child has been born for us,
a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders;
and he is named
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
–Isaiah 9.6
I’m big on gift-giving and, truth be told, gift-receiving.
Gifts are interesting things, saying much about how the giver sees the receiver.
When I think on gifts past from folks, especially my closest family, I notice patterns . . .
My son sees my serious side, giving me challenging books to read, new ideas to consider . . . oh, and every now and then, he sees my desperate need of an update.
My step-son and his wife see my cool side.
My step-daughter sees my peacenik social justice side.
And my mother sees always her child, looking out for my needs.
Which all leaves me to ponder what I see in them as I go shopping through their lists and my own ideas of who they are, what they like, what they dream – for I’ve always thought the best gift has a bit of the dream to it.
One of the best gifts ever came via e-mail today – no grand news of any impending birth . . . no extravagant prize . . . just my step-daughter’s wish list with a bunch of links, with one at the last, simply labeled, "oh, and one more. . ."
I clicked the link, which took me to a Google images page for world peace
World peace . . . my beautiful, wonderful, talented, funny, kind, passionate daughter of my heart wants, wishes, hopes, for world peace for Christmas.
I sit down to type my response to her and there’s a rustling sound of something soft falling. I wonder what it is and go see . . . on the floor are the palm fronds from this past Palm Sunday’s service. I hang them to dry for next year’s Ash Wednesday service and they had fallen to the floor.
And I hear the words in my memory . . . blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord . . . and I remember The One who came so inauspiciously . . . The One who received gifts from the wise . . . The One who was himself the Greatest Gift of All . . .
and I am minded of the readings through Advent . . . the harsh-sounding promises of wars and rumors of wars . . . cataclysmic shifts when moon and stars can no longer be relied upon to move in their courses . . . the coming of the Servant foretold whose suffering is larger than the world itself . . .
and for the first time, through the news and realities of . . . beheadings . . . families severed . . . promises broken . . . endless wrangling . . . tanks sent to neighboring lands . . . wars and rumors of wars the best recruitment posters as people everywhere weigh in on escalation as our only solution . . .
for the first time . . . I hear the whisper . . . the promise . . . in the most unlikely places . . . in the most unexpected ways . . . ways like the birth of a single child in a remote village in a far corner of things . . . when things are at their darkest – there does peace come . . . like Carl Sanburg’s proverbial fog . . . small and quiet, on little cat feet . . .
The hailers of the day have it right . . . there are signs . . . and they have it wrong . . . the signs are not of our doom . . . the signs are of our salvation. . . it is not destruction which has the final word but redemption.
My girl wants world peace for Christmas and I am moved to ask why not. Why not world peace for Christmas?
For unto us a child is born . . . unto us, a Son is given . . . and his name shall be called . . .
The Prince – of Peace
Beautifully poetic.. as so many of your essays are.. May we all have Peace with the coming of the Christ spirit this Christmas.
ReplyDeleteMarilyn
Amen and amen and amen
DeleteI long for peace and good will toward all
ReplyDelete