Peace to Those on Whom His Favor Rests

The peace candle is the fourth candle lit on the Advent wreath.

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In one of the best loved of all Christmas Carols, Silent Night, we sing "Sleep in heavenly peace." We imagine our King of Kings and Lord of Lords being born on a quiet, peaceful evening accompanied by rejoicing from His parents and the angels and then the shepherds. Surely there must have been a sense of holiness about that evening. We can all imagine the peace of that moment, a moment heralding prophetic fulfillment regarding the coming Messiah.

But that baby, the incarnate Christ, did not come to bring peace. He tells us straight in Matthew 10:34, "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword."

We hope for peace. We pray for peace. But there will be no true, complete, lasting peace until we are spending eternity in heaven with our God. Jesus wanted us to realize that in His definitive statement in Matthew.

There are occasional glimpses of peace in our lives, fleeting and few, but I think God gives us those small tastes of peace so that we do not lose hope and so that we remember that someday there will be peace on earth.

Even now, come Lord Jesus.