Today I worked with our Trustees Chair Jeff on forming the area for our new peace pole. Jeff worked on forming the stairs as I dug out the semi-circle for the concrete which will be poured next week. What a great event this will be, to plant a peace pole right now in the midst of a time when so much war and conflict that ravages our world. I am more aware as we prepare for the planting on January 25th, of all the sad news of those who are losing their lives every day of this new year, both home and abroad. Perhaps since I live in Covina, a community trying to make sense of the killing of nine persons on Christmas Eve by a man grieving for a failed marriage, I am more sensitive to those tragedies that cause suffering. Perhaps it is because I have friends who have worked in Israel, and have been intimately involved with caring for those in that place, I am more sensitive to the violence going on there.
Whatever the cause, I yearn for a peace, peace in the homes of those who are my neighbors here and all across the world. I yearn for a time when we can settle our differences without violence and that my brothers and sisters all across the world can live in peace, with liberty and justice for all.
It is what I dream of as we prepare to plant the peace pole at our church, a new world, one that does not destroy one another, but learns to love one another. I know that this is not an easy dream to have, because the images of war break my heart, we still bicker and harm one another, the conflicts seem so impossible to solve. But God calls me to be a peace maker, to work for peace each and every moment each and every day. Planting a peace pole means to me that here and now I am recommitting to be a peacemaker in what ever way God calls me to.
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