The story of Christmas includes the angels’ song of “peace and good-will.” This song must be either future hope or an unseen reality because we have yet to see even a season of peace and good-will break out across this world. We know peace as an absence of conflict enforced by arms instead of a product of good-will among all the peoples of the earth.
The Christmas season, associated with the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere, marks the transition from darkness to light, from the longest night to increasing daylight. It connects with a new day, new hope and renewed optimism. The angels’ song of peace and good-will anticipates this new day, hope and optimism, even if there is still a long winter season to endure.
With the shopping, decorating, presents, parties, family gatherings, and end-of-year celebrations, it might appear that Christmas is a destination, soon passed by. The angels’ song only window trimming, a paper cut-out taped to the glass, framed in frost by the cold night, soon taken down.
But the true message of Christmas is that it is less a destination than a journey. The whole Christmas story is made up of journeys – from Nazareth to Bethlehem, from the fields to the manger, from the east to the west, from Palestine to Egypt – journeys like ours today. Something is happening, come and see. Don’t stop, keep going.
May the angel’s song accompany the journey of your life, proclaiming peace especially in winter’s darkness and may their announcement of peace finally ring true because people of faith chose to keep seeking.
Grace and Peace.