Peace on Earth

by Kerry Blair

One of my sons recently asked what I wanted for Christmas. I replied that peace on earth would be nice.

“Bad idea, Mom,” he responded. “That would put two of your kids and a nephew out of work.”

He had a point. I have two sons in the armed forces and a nephew who works for a defense contractor. But that wasn’t really the kind of peace I was asking for in the first place – not that I would turn it down, of course.

How many times have we heard the prophecies about peace being taken from the earth in the last days? Being a little denser than your average Blair, it was only fairly recently that I realized the prophets weren’t predicting world war as much as they were lamenting the widespread turbulence that mortality brings us on a daily basis. Certainly the incredible awareness we have in these days of technology and instant information is part of the bombardment. My husband is a news junkie, but I have at last trained him to turn off the TV, change the channel, or at least mute the volume when I pass through the room. (Two minutes of CNN Headline News can be ample fodder for despair.)

Unfortunately, I don’t have to turn on the nightly news to be made aware of trial and tribulation; I can open my e-mail, answer my phone, or just look around my quiet neighborhood. If there’s anyone on earth who’s passed their life (or even a significant portion thereof) in serenity and happiness, I haven’t met them. Often we wonder if we all “are” that we might have joy (and peace) where the heck is it?

Nobody has ever asked my opinion, but I think we each brought all the peace and joy we would ever need with us. The problem is that within ourselves is often the last place we look for it.

A few decades after Ralphie got his Red Ryder, I sang in a children’s choir at the United Methodist Church. I remember only one hymn from that year, and only a portion of it. It began: Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me. Let there be peace on earth, the peace that was meant to be. With God as our Father, brothers all are we, Let me walk with my brother in perfect harmony. Let peace begin with me, let this be the moment now. With every step I take, let this be my solemn vow, to take each moment and live each moment in peace, eternally . . . Words and music by Jill Jackson and Sy Miller, circa 1955. (Guess what! I just looked it up online and I do know all the words. Imagine that. I’ve only sung it to myself once or twice a day for the past thirty years.)

All this is on my mind this morning because last night I opened a new book by a poet with whom I was not familiar. (I use the term “new” loosely here. This book was published in 1880 with an introduction by Charles Dickens.) I’d recently had chemo and was really too sick to read – and yet I read anyway. For hours. Adelaide Proctor is now one of the women I most want to meet in the after-here. Because of the season, I was particularly touched by A Desire. Here is a portion:

O, to have dwelt in Bethlehem
When the star of the Lord shone bright!
To have sheltered the holy wanderers
On that blessed Christmas night;
To have kissed the tender wayworn feet
Of the Mother undefiled,
And, with reverent wonder and deep delight,
To have tended the Holy Child!

Hush! Such a glory was not for thee;
But that care may still be thine;
For are there not little ones still to aid
For the sake of the Child divine?
Are there no wandering Pilgrims now,
To thy heart and thy home to take?
And are there no mothers whose weary hearts
You can comfort for Mary’s sake?

O to have seen what we now adore,
And, though veiled to faithless sight,
To have known, in the form that Jesus wore,
The Lord of Life and Light!

Hush! For He dwells among us still, And a grace can yet be thine,
Which the scoffer and doubter can never know:
The Presence of the Divine.
Jesus is with His children yet,
For His word can never deceive;
Go where His lowly Altars rise
And worship and believe.
Proctor, Adelaide; A Chaplet of Verses, published to benefit the Night Refuge for the Homeless Poor, May 1862.

Where is the peace on earth the angels promised all those many years ago in the meridian of time? In our days Christ said: Learn of me, and listen to my words; walk in the meekness of my Spirit, and you shall have peace in me. Doctrine & Covenants 19:23

In war and truce, poverty and wealth, health and sickness, tribulation and triumph – and all else that is part of this human condition, every person who’s ever come to this planet has been “wired” for peace and joy. Peace on earth, goodwill to men resides deep within every human heart, even if or when it seems that it is nowhere else to be found.

Peace is still my wish for this Christmas season. May peace and joy and love overflow for you and yours at the the most marvelous time of year! The ribbons and bows and busyness will soon be forgotten, and at last held at naught, but the peace and joy we find in our Savior and our families has always been there and will last forever and ever and ever.

Merry Christmas, all!