What do you think of when you think of peace? Is it zen, calm, yoga, goats, doves, tie dye, or hippies? Peace is not something we often attribute to the Christmas season. With Christmas shopping, parties, events, and celebrations, it’s easy to forget about peace at Christmastime. The world sees peace as the absence of violence, aggression, and pain, but God sees peace much differently.
The second week of Advent we remember the virtue of peace. Most of the time the Bible uses the Hebrew word “shalom” when it talks about peace. Shalom means completeness or well being, which is drawn from the picture of perfection God paints for us in Genesis 1 and 2. In this part of Scripture, we see life on Earth as God intended it before sin and the fall. When sin entered the world, shalom was shattered. But Elohim, the mighty creator God, had a plan to restore shalom through His Son, Jesus Christ the Prince of Peace.
When Jesus stepped onto the scene in the New Testament, we began to see the use of the Greek word “eiréné”. Eiréné is used in place and in the same way shalom was used in the Old Testament to describe peace. Eiréné means to join or tie back together as a whole. We see this word used 90 times in the New Testament with the clear picture of Jesus restoring our brokenness into what it was intended to be at the beginning.
We are all broken. No person is perfect or even good because of sin. But would you like to hear good news? God knew that our sin would break shalom on Earth and created a salvation plan so that we could experience eiréné through relationship with Him until the coming of His kingdom where He would forever restore shalom on this Earth.
Jesus, our Prince of Peace, created alongside God the Father shalom and He governs it bringing us eiréné today right where we are. As we wait for the Prince of Peace to establish His rule and reign again on this Earth, we can experience perfect peace knowing that He is tying back our broken shalom and restoring peace as it was meant to be.
Peace isn’t often the word that comes to mind at Christmastime with the commotion of the season. But if we look to the Prince of Peace who restores brokenness and returns all things to completion, we can worship in the waiting and celebrate the Prince’s coming.
Songs of Victory
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