Hope and Peace

Hope

Snow.

Pure.

White.

Perfect.

Beautiful.

Miracle.

Isn't it amazing that snow is a particle of dust, surrounded by a droplet of frozen water?

As if peace froze around pain, something amiss in the world,

and then at just the right moment it dropped from heaven,

in the millions,

and the world is left with a blanket of peace.

On the ground, the rooftops, the trees.

Bringing little children joy to romp around in it.

It silences the whole world,

if only for a minute,
giving it hope

that wrong can be made right.

For a minute,

the whole world can forget that there are problems and hurt.

The whole world has hope.

so this is love

What is love? Pure, true love. What is it really?

There were once four girls who had moved to a new land for a while to learn about themselves and how they could better serve the Lord and others. They liked this new land, but as it drew nearer to Christmas, they found it harder and harder to be away from their loved ones. They wanted a Christmas tree so that it would at least feel like Christmases they were used to back home, but they were finding it difficult to scrape together enough money.

One afternoon in mid-December, when the girls were particularly feeling the lack of a Christmas tree, there was a knock at the door. The girls opened it to find four men, angels it would seem, bearing a Christmas tree and wishing them the merriest of Christmases. The girls were so ecstatic, and invited them in. Together they decorated the tree and spent the evening talking and laughing over coffee, popcorn and pie, and became friends. The four men left at the end of the evening with promises to visit again. The girls sat in their home beaming at their new tree that had been brought them by new friends that had shown them true love. A love they couldn't describe and would never forget.

Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you, he is Christ the Lord. -Luke 2:11

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. We love because he first loved us. -1 John 4:9, 19