December arrived this week, so it was officially time to set up the decorations. Fernanda and Isabella got the tree ready and the house is looking very ready for the season. She also found time to come to church and set up our tree as well! Michael Buble and the Pentatonix left the cave and their music is present at different times around the house. And the countdown is on for the school holidays and summer adventures. I love the fact that they can enjoy these weeks of break between classes, something that was quite foreign to me growing up. My family owned a corner shop and I was expected to help there everyday as soon as I could. From the age of 6 or 7 I took care of the fruits and veggies outside the shop, and from 10 I was able to help serving the clients inside. From 13 I was able to take care of the shop by myself in the afternoon hours, and after 15 I would be asked to be in charge by myself. One of the busiest season of the year was Christmas, and our shop would be open until later hours… well, late hours in a South American way: we would close around 11 PM, with my dad and I being the last ones there trying to close down the shop in order to get home in time for a quick shower. After many hours of non-stop work, the stress of the last minutes shoppers and the frustration of telling people that we had run out of drinks or food, we were usually tired and stressed. Those precious minutes of break having a shower and changing into more formal clothes for dinner were very special. They marked a change in mood, in speed, in focus. My dad would sit and enjoy the company of the family, my mum would enjoy our faces when each dish was brought to the table, and we would look forward to midnight and the opening of the gifts. Those moments, to me, seeing my dad smiling and my mum resting, was a picture of peace in the midst of the busiest of seasons for us. The morning of the 25^th would be special as well, as the shop would be closed (one of only 2 mornings that happened every year) and we would enjoy a quiet morning as family, my parents would sleep in and there would be no hurry around the house. Peace. For a few hours at least.

What would be your favourite picture of peace? Is it seeing a family together? Is it the feeling at the end of the day? Is it the quietness of a long walk on the country or at the beach? Is it the early breeze during sunrise, or the quiet air of a sunset? Is it que face of a sleeping baby safe in the arms of a parent, or holding the hand of a loved one that is resting at the end of their journey? It reminds me of the story of the King who asked the artist at court to present the picture that would represent perfect peace to decorate the palace. The kingdom had conflicts for many years and now that a new season approached the King wanted to have a work of art that would represent it in the throne room. The artist of the court engaged in excited conversations and got to work on their pieced. At the end, the King was undecided over two paintings that presented quite opposite perspectives. One was a picture of a calm lake. The lake was a perfect mirror for peaceful towering mountains were all around it. Overhead was a blue sky with fluffy white clouds. All who saw this picture thought that it was a perfect picture of peace.

The other picture had mountains too. But these were rugged and bare. Above was an angry sky from which rain fell, in which lightening played. Down the side of the mountain tumbled a foaming waterfall. This did not look peaceful at all. Which one would you pick?

This simple choice can raise some deeper questions. What is peace for each one of us? Some seem to think that it is the absence of conflict, and therefore avoid the possibility of a confrontation at all costs. For others, peace can only exist when every conflict has been resolved and therefore the march through life making sure that the battles are fought. For some peace is something very deep and personal, something that can only exist in our inner beings and that can be conquered through focus and discipline. Some think that peace can only exists when it is shared with everyone around us, and that there cannot be peace for some if there is no peace for all. Some try to buy their way to peace, surrounding themselves with “yes” people that would never dream of contradicting them. Others think that they can only have peace when they have no possessions, when they think they will be free from the pressures and temptations of this world. Some try to find it in popularity, others in solitude.

When Jesus was born peace was only a dream for the people of Israel… for a long time their land had been passed around by the empire of the era, until it was time for the Romans to conquer them. They were under oppression, driven into poverty and misery. Their religion had been corrupted and their freedom taken from them. They, however, held on to hope. Hope that the promises of their God as presented by their prophets would one day come true. That their saviour would come and restore Israel to the place of honour among the nations… at least that was what they expected. One of the names that their saviour would carry due to the prophecy of Isaiah was “Prince of Peace”. That name carried with very special imagery. It would remind them of the story of Melquizedek, the King of Salem (Peace). He shows up for a tiny moment in the narrative, in Genesis 14. His name can be translated as Righteousness, and he is a kind of priest of El Elyon (The God Most High). He blesses Abram, who would later be known as Abraham, and receives from him the tithe, a symbol of his role as priest. They would also remember David, the King that conquered Jerusalem (“city of peace”), brought them peace with their enemies and peace with their God for many years, bringing a season of prosperity and growth for Israel- true revival that changes society bringing a new era of righteousness and peace… would there be anyone who could bring this two realities together?

And we know there was! He came into this world to be both a complete, ultimate revelation of righteousness and peace. Not only that, but he lived and died and rose again in order to make us righteous before God and to give us peace that goes beyond understanding! But they couldn’t recognise him… he wasn’t born in a palace, but he was born among the simple people in the countryside. He didn’t grow up among privilege and adoration, but he grew up first in a foreign nation as a refugee and then later in a poor family in a poor region suffering discrimination and prejudice. He didn’t come into society carrying the best diplomas from the best schools with the prize of “most likely to succeed”. He didn’t have an army, he didn’t have treasures in gold or silver, he didn’t fight for positions or influence or fame… but he loved, served, reached out to the lost, the last, the least and stood by the side of those rejected. Jesus challenged their expectations, not by being less but by being someone beyond their dreams- not a saviour for Israel, not a king for a nation, but a saviour to the world and a king that reigns over the universe. Not a solution for a temporal problem, but salvation for eternity. Not just the solution to the problems of our lives, but to the sin that destroys our souls.

The same way that they couldn’t recognize their Messiah because he was too different from what they had imagined, sometimes we fail to recognise peace because we are imagining something else, and we miss out on the gift of God. Not a peace that is determined and therefore depends on circumstances, but a peace that exceeds the power and influence of those circumstances. Not a peace that arrives due to the absence of conflict or at the end of the conflict, but a peace that is more powerful than any conflict between people or inside of each one of us. Not the peace that is found when we get what we want or even what we need, but the kind of peace that resists even in the lack, in the in between times, in the aching and the waiting and the wishing. The peace that holds us together when everything else is falling apart around us, when we don’t have answers, but we are holding on to hope… hope and peace, the first elements that we remember in our own season of waiting.

In this world we shouldn’t have the illusion of peace. We pray for world peace and we hope to build a community in which we can imagine our children and grandchildren and grand grandchildren experiencing peace, but we know that human nature rarely conforms with peace. We always want more, we get offended too easily, we build up our strengths and our nations for conflict, we are late to forgive and quick to respond. But the reality of the love of Jesus changes that in us and we hope for the day that it will change this world. Until then we hold on not just to this hope, but to the peace he offers. The peace that he paid a price for at the cross so you and I can experience it right here, right now. The peace that can fill our hearts and one day will fill this world. The peace that is available to us today.

At the end the King chose the second painting. He observed it closely and found that the artist had added a detail: he saw behind the waterfall a tiny bush growing in a crack in the rock. In the bush a mother bird had built her nest. There, amid the rush of angry water, sat the mother bird on her nest ...  in perfect peace despite of the turmoil around her. So remember that you are under God’s wings, protected by his care, saved by his grace, covered by his mercy, filled with his love and forever in the arms of the Prince of Peace.