Christmas is here again, and it can still be hoped it will be a season of joy and peace.
Even with a world at war in many respects, both literally with artillery and machine gun fire in Ukraine and the Middle East, and figuratively as countries assert a strong and potentially dark nationalism in trade wars and other conflicts with each other, we have to come together as one.
In the Nick Lowe song "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding," he takes aim at people mocking those who are trying to be peacemakers or idealists. He was responding to the darkening world in 1974 when he wrote this, but the message can well apply to us living in our world today.
We need those peacemakers and idealists now as much as we have ever needed them in human history. We need people to step forward to assert that violence, conflict and war are the destroyers of humanity’s soul. We call on people to once again pull together to hope for a peaceful, united world guided by the better angels of our nature, a world crafted from mutual respect and understanding.
At Christmas, we also celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ within the Christian faith. Jesus said many great things, but one which it seems people struggle to understand and carry out is his command for love and peace between all peoples.
“Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.”
We must all continue to strive for peace even when that peace seems far off and the calls for it ignored by those intent on hate, division and death. We must all continue to strive for a day when war will no longer drive hearts and minds.
Merry Christmas to all our readers, and we wish you joy and peace in this holiday season.
