Here
we are in Advent again. Every year
the holidays seem to come and go faster.
This year’s holiday season finds us facing uncertain and
tumultuous times. We may be tempted to look at the events around
us and succumb to fear. But Mary and
Joseph lived in very uncertain and frightening times as well.
Herod the Great, King of the Jews, enforced Roman Rule
even at the local level.
To assure his position
Herod killed two brothers-in-law, his own wife Mariamne, and two
of his own sons. Five days before
his own death he ordered the arrest of many citizens and decreed
that they be executed on the day of his death, in order to
guarantee a proper atmosphere of mourning in the country.
Scarcely a day passed, in fact, without an execution
under Herod’s regime. The political
climate at the time of Jesus’ birth resembled that of Russia in
the 1930’s under Stalin.
This was the climate
into which a very young unmarried girl was about to bring a
child. Bethlehem must have been
mayhem as they rode into town.
People were everywhere; there were no rooms in which to stay.
Where was the peace we see depicted on our cards and sing
about in our carols?
The peace came to
Bethlehem with them. Mary carried
that Peace that passes understanding within her in the soon to
be incarnate Son of God. Scripture
assures us that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and
forever. In the Person of the Holy
Spirit, we now carry that peace within us.
In these days we will
not find our security by looking outward.
The stock market, the auto companies, our investments,
none of these will save us. They
will not enable us to sleep peacefully.
We will find our peace as we look within us at the
Promise that has been given to us.
We will know His peace as we choose to take Him at His Word.
In this time of
preparation let us take time to revisit that place within us
where, regardless of our circumstances, we can rest in His
Presence and know His peace.
Blessings,