Yesterday I visited the George W. Bush Library on the SMU campus in Dallas, Texas.  To be honest I expected to be informed, perhaps to be bored, but certainly I did not expect this to be an Advent Moment for me!  But then, we remember that we must expect to be surprised during Advent.  Just pay attention!  I hope you will set aside your political orientation now and think about the place at which we all stand before the manger of the Christ Child who said, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you.  Not as the world gives do I give it to you.  Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” (John 14:27).

The horrific tragedy of 9/11 was one of the events that was prominent in the library.  I had seen it happening live on TV years ago, and now I watched it again as if it were the first time.

What a horrific moment in the life of our country and the entire world.  We are all effected by such violence wherever it happens in our world. I found myself suddenly alone in a rotunda shaped room and this is what stood before me…

These are actual steel beams that came from the World Trade Center Twin Towers in New York City.  They had been burned, deformed in the flames. This is now a sculpture which rises about 18 feet high.  I stood before it….stunned, frozen in the moment of then and now, melted together.  Then the docent came up to me and said, “You may touch it if you want.  We encourage people to touch.”  I had not realized until then that I wanted to touch.  But my heart was drawn closer.

I touched it, and tears filled my eyes.  I didn’t want to stop.  It was cold steel, yet it was warm, hot from the heat of the fire. My fingers searched for a rough edge to rub….I wanted to feel a bit of their pain and share in it somehow.  In this moment I felt united, as ONE with the victims, all of them, and I felt they are alive.  I did not feel hate, or anger, or revenge.  I felt love.  I felt compassion. I felt mercy.  I certainly did not understand it.  It is all way bigger than me!  But this love that I felt was a great love that transcended boundaries of time and place, and I felt connected.

I am on an Advent Journey with you, and this was a powerful moment for me.  Through death I felt the touch of life eternal and a peace Jesus brought into the world which is deeper than the peace the world can give.  In that touch I felt God’s holy presence.  The baby Jesus came to save the world.

This huge inflated balloon, lit from within, is an image of the world which I saw in the Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum in Denver, Colorado during Thanksgiving this year.

What does all this have to do with Advent?  I don’t fully understand it all, but the Messiah has come, and in the words of the prophet Isaiah, “His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Almighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace”.

Questions to think about…

What do you think “PEACE” looks like?

How do you think the Prince of Peace is present today?

nk