December 16, 2003

Every day when the newspaper arrives, for many there is a great hope that the words of the prophet Samuel will have come true.

How the mighty have fallen and the weapons of war perished.

2 Samuel 1:27

How wonderful it would be to have a world without war.  How wonderful it would be to have a world without the weapons of war.  How wonderful it would be for children to be safe in the streets and in their schools.  How wonderful it would be for people to be able to live in far away places, and near to us in peace and in justice.  How wonderful it would be…

It is the belief and hope that peace is possible that motivates people to act, to work for peace, to protest to governments when policies lead us away from peace.  It is the image of today’s box.

Plasticine people come to life with signs of hope.  We will be free.  War will end.  Justice will prevail.  At the front of the box, hardly visible in the photograph, are models of canons and guns, and weapons of war that have become useless.  The physical ‘weapons of war have perished.’  

And yet, it is the people of the box that remind us that perhaps the biggest weapon of war is the idea that some people are more worthy and worthwhile than others.  Perhaps when that idea perishes, when we come to believe that we are all loved and beloved children of God, then we will know a different world.

On this day in Advent, that really is a ‘grown-up Christmas wish’.