The Gift of Peace!

It is easy to take our blessings for granted.  After all, for most of us in this part of the world peace is with us today as it was yesterday and the day before yesterday and the day before that.  So we don’t think of peace as a gift, but as the natural order of things.

This is not the way it is for many people in many places.  Not true in the Central African Republic, not true in Afghanistan, not true in Somalia, not true in Nigeria, not true in South Sudan, not true in Iraq, not true in Syria, not true in Libya, and elsewhere.

And for others peace is tenuous.  Like in Ukraine, and Egypt, and Thailand, and Israel, and Lebanon, and Gaza, and elsewhere.

Peace on earth is a context for this holiday season.  For we lucky ones it is a gift to be cherished.  And for we lucky ones it is a good time to remember those for whom peace is not a given, to keep them in our thoughts and, if we pray, in our prayers.

Merry Christmas!