Editorial December 12, 1994 Issue

"and on earth peace,..."

William E. Moody

As the Christmas season approaches each year, much of the world gives more thought to peace. And some people do feel a deeper peace, which is natural, for doesn't the New Testament recount the heralding of Christ Jesus' birth with "a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men"? (Luke 2:13, 14)

Still, many don't feel at peace. In fact, much of the world cries out for it. Nations and individuals keep missing it because they seek it in the wrong place. The world has too long believed that treaties, or human laws, or governments, or institutions, or armies and navies, or a change in physical circumstances or in other people's behavior and actions will bring the peace humanity needs. While appropriate outward change is always seen with the resolution of conflict, real peace doesn't ultimately come from any of these sources.

Surely peace should pervade our laws, institutions, and daily lives. And there have been many instances where great strides have been made in demonstrating this. Yet, too often, the peace attained merely through human means has not proved to be permanent. It may last for a time, perhaps even a generation or two, and then the animosities begin again—the wars, the ethnic violence, the family violence, the violence people do to themselves, the hurts and hatreds between friends, neighbors, co-workers.

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