Experience Christmas is a 19-day devotional series based on the Scriptural narrative and aimed at creating space during a beautiful, but hectic time of year to wonder at the miracle of Christmas. You’re joining us on day thirteen, with music from Casting Crowns and a devotional on what the Angel’s message of “Peace on Earth” speaks to our world today.

Listen

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day, Casting Crowns
YouTube | Lyrics | iTunes

Read

Luke 2:8-20

These are the words the whole host of heaven’s armies proclaim the night that Christ is born, speaking promise and life into a world waiting for the hope of Messiah.

And yet what do they speak to our world today?

Peace on earth seems an unlikely possibility. In a world torn apart by genocide and wars, where children go hungry, and human beings are bought and sold, where is the peace? Where is the hope? How can we reconcile the declaration of the angels with our sin-sick, heart-broken world?

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.”
– I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

This question of pain and suffering in our world is not one that answers easily. Theologians and persons of faith have been engaging it for years – but this question is so crucial to our experience of Christmas that it cannot be ignored.

What I have come to understand through the wrestling of my own heart, is the following:

God respects us so much as beings created in His image, that He allows us to have and exercise our own will, for good or for evil.

God could have made us like puppets, with His hand pulling every string in our lives. But without the freedom to choose for ourselves, there would be no real love, or joy, or life. God took an incredible risk allowing us to choose our own way. This risk is literally what makes us human, separating us from every other created thing on earth.

God is not only aware of the pain and suffering in this world, but He is present and broken over the things that break us.

I do not believe that God delights in the folly of our own choices. I believe it breaks His heart when people are abused, ignored, and rejected. I believe it is He that walks with us through the darkest black of night, and He that will wipe every tear of sorrow from our eyes when we meet Him face to face. We are not forgotten by the God who loves us through our suffering.

Christ’s birth is the peace God extends to a wounded world.

When the angels sang peace on earth, they were not announcing the end of free will. They were proclaiming God’s entrance into our chaos, bringing peace into our midst through Christ.

The God present at humanity’s fall in the Garden of Eden is the God present with us at the manger. He is the Child Immanuel, God with us. He is Calvary’s Savior come to make right our relationship with God. He is the King-Coming-Soon who will someday replace the brokenness of this world with a new heaven and a new earth, perfect and wonderful and whole.

Christ is our peace now, walking with us through the storms of life.

He is the peace that makes it possible for us to know God.

He is the peace that secures our destiny in heaven.

He is the peace that will make our world right someday.

As recipients of God’s peace, we are called to be His peace-bearers to the world today.

Micah 6:8 (MSG)
But He’s already made it plain how to live, what to do, what God is looking for in men and women. It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be compassionate and loyal in your love, and don’t take yourself too seriously – take God seriously.

God invites us to be His arm extended to a wounded and dying world; to see injustice and pain, to acknowledge the poor and afflicted, to allow our hearts to break with the things that break His, and then to do something about it in His name.

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.”
– I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

This is what the Angels proclaimed –

And this is why we can believe the truth of their message.

Christ is the peace that’s come to earth, God’s offering of goodwill toward us all.

Consider

• What have you discovered by reflecting on the message of the Angels, Peace on Earth?
• As a recipient of God’s peace, how might you be a maker of peace in your world?

Pray

Ask God to show you how He is working to bring peace on earth and ask Him to soften your heart toward the broken and hurting in your life.

Father, thank you that Jesus is the peace offered to us here on earth. Help us to hold onto that promise when we see the broken places of our hearts and the broken places of our world.

Lord we ask that you would bring peace where there is unrest in our world and peace where evil still reigns. Jesus bring peace to our own hearts and help us to discern where we can be peace-bearers in our world.

For a complete list of devotional posts visit the Experience Christmas series page. Sign up to receive posts directly via email by completing the online subscription form and join in the conversation on Facebook and Twitter by using the hashtag #ExperienceChristmasDevotional. See my disclosure page for iTunes and other affiliate information.