We have been lighting our second advent candle this week, the one that stands for peace – deep, shalom, surpassing-all-understanding peace.

I have found myself caught in all the news that seems to make that small candle redundant. So many stories of torture this week. Threats of violence and broken promises abound. The image of a child severely injured in Syria sears my mind with brokenness. Then I read about remembrances to the ‘truce in the trenches’ 100 years ago this Christmas, and wondered what the modern truces might be? What are the stories of peace unfolding in the midst of horrors taking place? This was also the week that Malala received the Nobel peace prize. Now why was that not the prevailing image in my mind as I heard the news? What stories of courage and bravery preparing the way for peace are happening right now around the world? In my own backyard?

As I reflected this week on the call to ‘prepare the way of the Lord’ I feel a longing for peace that prevails. Again I am reminded that preparing my own heart and tending my own reactions in small and large ways is the first call to peace. To call a truce in the trenches of my heart when divisions and contradictions overwhelm. And then to allow my voice, no matter how fragile, to raise in the direction of peace in the world around me.

An interesting article on the complexities of the ‘truce in the trenches’.