Isaiah 66:12-14

Isaiah 66:12-14 
English Standard Version (ESV)

  Did you know that we're still in the Christmas season?  Once the calendar flips into the new year, Christmas is often forgotten amid the flurry of activity, as everyone filters back home and to work.  The engines of the economy start firing again, and gathering around the Christmas tree is but a memory.
  But we're in the 10th day of Christmas (10 Lord a leaping is the gift for today, I believe, if you're honoring the song), and we can still celebrate that Christ has come.  Today seems especially poignant for that given the activity in the middle east.  We are a world longing for peace, and since Cain slew Abel, we've been in conflict with one another.  Sin divides us, and we rely upon a Savior to liberate us, to grant us the true and lasting peace that Christ alone can bring.  Until Christ returns and the Lord extends peace like a river to us, we will be retaliating against one another.  In the day to come, our hearts can rejoice and we will be comforted.  Until that day, let us pray for peace, for those who only know conflict, and for those in service -- may all be able to live in peace, to catch glimpses of the coming Kingdom in their everyday lives.