As I write, it’s the shortest day of the year where I live and tonight will be the longest night. If you look around right now, it feels like the night is long.
How are you dealing with the situation in Gaza? Over 20,000 dead. It seems so wrong to be in celebration mode while so many are wondering if the next hour will be their last. It’s not just Gaza. It’s Ukraine and South Sudan and other places I don’t even know about.
Longfellow famously wrote in U.S. Civil War days:
“Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men
It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And in despair I bowed my head;
“There is no peace on earth,” I said;
“For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”
Though I’ve suffered nothing like Longfellow, I get it. Hate is strong, both far and near, and it mocks the song of peace.
I wonder how much time passed between writing that stanza to the final one:
“Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men.”
Sometimes it’s a quick transition for me. Other times it takes prayer, will and a white-knuckled grip on the promise that the little boy we celebrate this week actually changes things, that someday justice will flow like a river, evil will be destroyed, God will be praised by all and peace will reign on the Earth. The sooner the better, don’t you agree?
I’d like to ask you to consider two things in response to this:
- Join me in watching this Christmas Eve livestream from Bethlehem on Saturday morning. Let’s open our hearts to our sisters and brothers in these tough days.
- Please consider a year end donation to the Muslim Connect effort. As we near the seven year anniversary of Muslim Connect, I’m honored to reach out to you each week. If this is a blessing to you and God gives you grace, make a gift here (Scroll down to the “Select Designation” drop down and choose me). Thank you.