My Christmas Ornament

"It's the most wonderful time of the year!"

With Kenny G serenading my room with angelic Christmas melodies, I wiped the cobwebs and dust off the oddly shaped rectangular box above my armoire. Pulling out my Christmas tree and setting it up, I began meticulously decorating it with care. As I hung my few ornaments, one grabbed my attention.

The ornament is simple. A basic oval-shaped olive-wood carving of Mary and Joseph entering Bethlehem. Ordinary. Nonetheless, this decoration brought back vivid memories. Memories of turmoil, unrest, conflict, hatred, yet hope.

I purchased this piece in the land of Palestine earlier this year while working on a project in the West Bank. Finding this ornament in Bethlehem, I thought it an appropriate addition to my Christmas experience. A question, however, lingers in my mind.

When the angels announced Jesus' birth to the shepherds, they proclaimed, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." (Luke 2:14) Yet sometimes I wonder, "Where is that peace? That goodwill?"

Visiting the middle of a conflict zone brings life into clear reality. The place of my accommodations in the West Bank felt like a low-security prison with the numerous checkpoints, armed soldiers on the rooftops, barred doors & windows, vacant streets, and barbed wire lining the pathways.

Yet, it is at such times that you realize the harsh reality of this world's wickedness. When you are playing football on the streets with young boys to an audience of armed militants, or holding a six-day old newborn whose house/tent has just been obliterated for political reasons, or when cradling the head of a sobbing child on your chest who is traumatized by life's pain, you wonder. Peace on earth?

What could those angel's have meant? Even Jesus declared, "Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." (Matthew 10:34) Contradictory? Maybe at a glance, but here we have a beautiful promise. Christ didn't come to make this world His "kingdom." He openly stated, "My kingdom is not of this world." (John 18:36) Rather, He declared, "These things I have spoken to you that IN ME you may have peace. In the world, you WILL have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)

On my way back to Cairo, I stopped in Jerusalem at the Garden Tomb for a few moments of solitude and reflection. As I sat there quietly, a verse struck me profoundly. "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but He is risen." (Luke 24:5b-6a) How often do we look for the solution in the wrong place; in our government, in society, in people? The solution for hope, peace, love, or acceptance.

True peace is not found in the absence of conflict, but rather, in the person of Jesus. Not in our vain and fruitless pursuits of trade agreements, peace treaties, and ceasefire. Rather, in the very person of CHRISTmas. "Peace on earth." Christ on earth! God's purpose for our lives is not that we live in the absence of conflict, but that we find Him through life's joys and difficulties. He joined our world two thousand years ago to seek us. In finding Him, we find peace. For both now and forever.

As the lights flicker magically from my three-foot Christmas tree and Kenny G's heavenly music continues to fill the air, I smile. Once again, Christmas is upon us. That, "thrill of hope The weary world rejoices, For yonder breaks A new and glorious morn. Fall on your knees! O, hear the angels' voices! O night divine, O night when Christ was born."