Christmas comes again this year with something of the cold sense of our humanity and the reality of our frailty. 

 

We know too well of the violence and pain in the world. Blood is spilled in the streets of our nation.  Children sleep on the beaches with no place to call home even here in Hawaiʻi.  Wars continue where peace has been declared time and time again.    

 

As Christians, we look to the one called the Prince of Peace, and we are called to work for His Kingdom of Justice and Love in our own small ways every day. 

 

This age is no different than ages past -- human beings haven't changed that much since we evolved to walking upright on the plains of Africa -- except we have greater means of violence and destruction, and we can now destroy the earth itself as well. The God of Love still offers a vision of peace with justice, inclusion and joy.

 

The violence and hunger of our age impacts children throughout the world and even in the communities of Hawaiʻi.  As the children of a loving God, we can, we must make a difference as the heralds of the Prince of Peace.  We can open our hands to feed the hungry and open our arms to welcome the stranger.  Our lips can offer words of justice, peace and love.  

 

In the words of the Christmas hymn by Phillips Brooks, we must pray:  

 

"Where children pure and happy pray to the blessed Child, where misery cries out to thee, Son of the Mother mild; where charity stands watching and faith holds wide the door, the dark night wakes, the glory breaks, and Christmas comes once more.... O holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray; cast out our sin and enter in, be born in us today. We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell; O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel!" Amen.

  

May endless Joy and Peace and Love, 

the Blessed Savior's gifts from heaven above shine like candles in the night 

to make your pathways clear, smooth and bright throughout 2015.