gifts – Josh Hodge blog

It’s Christmastime, but where is peace on Earth? Will peace on Earth ever be attained? Christmas is a beautiful time of year, without a doubt. Family and friends get together. Decorations enlighten the mundane. Traditions of old warm our hearts in the cold of winter. All around us we are bombarded with the things of the season: lights, candy canes, snowflakes, reindeer, Christmas trees, carols, a hot cup of cocoa and the crackling yule log. But for some, and unfortunately many, this time of year is not merry and far from holly jolly. Families fight, relationships break, illness rages on, things are taken, things are stolen, and the ghost of Christmas Past may gift the burdensome memories of painful holidays gone by.

We turn to our distractions in life and what do we find? –bad habits, violence, and darkness. News coming from all around us at all angles shows a world in desperate need, broken. So, peace on Earth, where is it? Will it ever be attained? The truth is there is peace on Earth. It is here. It has been gifted. It is evident even in the most difficult of situations: It’s on the smile of a woman’s face when the cancer treatments just aren’t enough. It’s in the man who resolves to find hope when his only son, whom he was so proud of, has died. It’s in the trust of a family who has lost its home. It is unfathomable joy in the midst of hardships.

The Peace on Earth we hear about at Christmas is the peace in our hearts, only possible through the gift of Jesus whose sacrifice has the profound ability to calm our hearts, bringing hope in despair, peace in turmoil, wisdom in the midst of folly, joy in sorrow, and strength in weakness. It contradicts the very ways of the world and brings us peace to our innermost being.

We hear this phrase “Peace on Earth” at Christmastime primarily because of the scripture of Luke 2:14, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.” If we look at the original Greek translation we see the word for peace is eirḗnē. The root of this word is eirō, which is “to join, tie together into a whole” – properly, wholeness, when all the parts have come together. Just as the birth of Jesus brings wholeness to ancient prophecies so does Jesus restore our relationship with God bringing wholeness to our souls.

The reason why there is so much gloom and sorrow in our world, even at Christmastime, is because man’s relationship with God has been broken and made incomplete because of sin. This brokenness is not God’s intent for us. Sin has marred us and separates us from a perfect and just God. But God sent his only son Jesus into this world to carry the burden of sin and sacrifice himself, paying the price to restore our relationship with God. We must acknowledge our sorry state of sin, ask for forgiveness, and accept this incredible gift of Jesus as our Savior.

So does Jesus alleviate our sickness, restore our human relationships, take away our sadness and trouble? He certainly can, and we certainly ask him to, but regardless of our petitions, even the most devoted Christians must face hardships, illness, loss, and grief. This Peace on Earth is our ability to face these difficult worldly troubles with an unwavering stance of joy, hope, and trust that calms our souls amidst the chaos.

Despite what the world takes away from us or plagues us with, the singular most important thing, and fountain of all goodness in our lives, is our restored relationship with God. Because of this there is a peace about our future. We know God will provide and we know this world is but a temporary place. This calms our hearts as we have the assurance of eternity in God’s presence. We know that the powers of darkness in this world shall not be victorious in the end. God has already won the battle. We also have a peace about our identity. In a world that tries so hard to categorize and confuse people, in which people obsess about how they are perceived and the status they behold, we have a clear understanding of whom we are as children of God. We are loved, cared for, designed, and granted purpose.

If you know Jesus as your Savior, you know this Peace and you know how precious and powerful it is. You’ve experienced the hardships of life in a quietude and resolve the world does not comprehend. So this Christmas celebrate this Peace without reserve, share your story with others as it is powerful, and thank God for He is truly good. If you do not know Jesus, may you begin to ask questions and seek answers. You may be in a place and time in life in which you cannot find peace in the world around you, but know you can behold the most divine and powerful of Peace on Earth in your heart this Christmas.

“I heard the bells on Christmas day

Their old familiar carols play,

And wild and sweet the words repeat

Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And thought how, as the day had come,

The belfries of all Christendom

Had rolled along the unbroken song

Of peace on earth, good will to men.

Till ringing, singing on its way

The world revolved from night to day,

A voice, a chime, a chant sublime

Of peace on earth, good will to men.

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.”

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.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1864; “Christmas Bells.”

The line was nearly out the door. People stood hugging their packages ready to send them off to their friends and family, in all parts of the world, to bring them a parcel of Christmas joy and let them know they are loved. No one likes standing in line, but as I stood here in the post office noting the stockings hung up above the front counter and red Christmas bows along the wall, and hugging my own box, warm fuzzy Christmas feelings tugged at my heartstrings. There is a satisfaction and hope in seeing how each person was standing here because of someone they loved and desired to send a Christmas gift to. As the delicate lines on a snowflake extend, stretch, and branch in a beautiful network, the love of each person also creates a beautiful display as it extends to one another touching their lives. What a beautiful thing it must be the stories of family and love present here in the post office on just an ordinary day in winter!

More people entered in the post office and with them a burst of cold icy air swept across the tiled floor. I stood at the counter island in the middle of the post office preparing a gift for departure. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to use one of the post office’s priority boxes or not so I brought a small brown box from home just in case along with packaging tape and scissors. I had a copy of my new book and a homemade candle to ship to a friend in Montana. As I compared the two boxes I decided to ship it in one of the post office’s. As I folded up and assembled the box I realized my candle wouldn’t fit. That’s ok, I thought. The important thing I wanted to send was my book. After securing all sides of the box tightly in tape, with the knowledge it might be sitting out in the Montana winter snow before being discovered, I went back to the line.

An older lady hands full of plush presents turned to me. “What box do you think I need? I just want to send this.” She had a plush frog and soft something resembling a reindeer’s face.

I looked over at the rack of flat boxes organized in size by the postal service. I was slightly perplexed why someone was asking for help with such a simple task. “ I don’t know, maybe…”I was just about to suggest one until she interrupted.

“—I just want something like the brown one you have there.” She pointed at the box in my arms.

“You can have this box.” I was quick to respond. “I decided not to use it. It just has some junk in it.” I went back to the counter to empty out my tape, scissors, and candle and transfer them to my pockets.

“Really?!” Her face lit up.

“Yeah. I’m not going to use it.”

She thanked me profusely especially just for an old brown box. She put her hands together as if to pray and pointed her head towards heaven. “Thank you Jesus,” she said in the most sincere way.

“Let’s see if it fits.” I said. She proceeded to explain how the item resembling a reindeer’s face was a Rudolph toilet seat cover. She had it stuffed full with other soft items. She told me how her sister had moved to Florida and she wanted to surprise her with this silly gift for Christmas. I helped her squeeze her plush toilet seat and other treasures into the cardboard box. She held the sides of the box tightly together as I taped it.

“Let’s make sure we get it taped up well,” I said as I wrapped tape around the corners. “We don’t know if it will be sitting out in the snow or not.” Then I remembered it was going to Florida.

She continued to thank me and I assured her she was certainly welcome. While assisting her I had fallen back in line, but the kind people in line just before me motioned me forward telling me that I started out in line before them.

After my business in the post office was done, and my little package was checked in for its flight to Montana, I left the post office back into the frigid weather. As I was walking back to my car I was thinking of the next errand to run. Then when I reached for my door handle I heard “Merry Christmas!” from behind me. The lady I had helped in the post office extended a large festive tin of popcorn toward me.

“Oh, no, I can’t,” I said, feeling unworthy of such a gift for such a small gesture.

“Please,” she assured me. “It’s Christmastime. You let me have your box, and you were so kind, and that just made my day. Merry Christmas!”

I thanked her and got into my car with a completely undeserved large tin of popcorn in my lap. I emptied my pocket of my scissors, tape, and candle. I looked at my candle, and thought, “I need to give this to her.”

Her car lights came on, and her car started to back up. I walked over to her car, and she rolled down her window.

“I was going to mail this candle to my friend, but it didn’t fit in the box and I want you to have it. I made it.” I reached into her window to give it to her.

She proceeded to tell me she was a school teacher of thirty years from out of town visiting Danville for the day. She told me that this time of year is difficult, especially for teachers, but how my simple act of kindness really made her day. She told me that giving to one another is really what Christmas is all about, along with celebrating the birth of Jesus. I agreed with her. “So you made this candle? You poured the wax and everything?” she asked.

“Yes,” I confirmed.

“That makes it all the more special. I will take this home, and I will say my prayers by it tonight.”

We both wished each other a Merry Christmas again, and that was that.

I sat in my car, turned up the heat, although my heart had been well warmed; and I was looking at my popcorn tin, soaking up and savoring the Christmas spirit.

What satisfaction this encounter and exchange of gifts with a lady whom was none other than a stranger at the post office had brought me! It may just be popcorn tin, and it will soon be devoured and gone, but nevertheless it was unmerited, by no means a match for an old cardboard box. This really did tug at my heartstrings and this moment truly felt like Christmas in its most organic form, for Christmas really is the receiving an undeserved gift— the gift of the Christ Child, undeserved, unmerited, but out of selfless love. There’s no good list nor bad list that extends or retracts this gift of a Savior.

An image of this lady saying her prayers by my little white candle came to mind. A sense of humility overcame me, thinking of how this simple candle I made will be used in this lady’s quiet and intimate moment with God. Perhaps it will even serve as a small impetus for her to pause and take the time to talk with God in the midst of the busy Christmas season.

With all that’s going on in our lives, in our world, and in our hearts, we must not overlook sweet, simple, beautiful, divinely orchestrated moments like this happening all around us that remind us of the beauty and love of our Heavenly Father.

As it is a prayer for myself, may it be a prayer for you, that this Christmas God uses you to touch the lives of another through unmerited love and kindness.

Category: gifts

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