Several months ago I blogged about a book I read called Peace Child. It documents the journey of missionary Don Richardson and his wife deep into the jungles of New Guinea to communicate the gospel message to people who had never connected with the outside world prior to their arrival. They sought to find a common principle – a baseline from which they could relate some aspect of the gospel to something in the natives’ world that they would understand. When Don first related the story of Jesus, the tribesmen applauded the deception of Judas over the sacrifice of Jesus. They saw Judas as the victor for accomplishing the ultimate betrayal. Mr. Richardson had his work cut out for him!
He finally found the concept they could relate to. The Peace Child. How on earth would cannibals ever be able to trust each other? Through the giving of a peace child. If one parent gave their baby as a sacrifice to another family – the bond between those families was a covenant of trust. Those families could depend on one another not to betray or kill each other as long as the peace child was alive. ONLY the peace child could save them.
Did this concept stem from a long forgotten message of hope that God would one day send a peace child – His Son – to the world to reconcile it back to Himself? In Genesis 11, God scattered the people over the face of the earth. At that point in time, everyone scattered with the same knowledge of history. (Not theory, KNOWLEDGE) Over the thousands of years that elapsed between Genesis 11 and the 1960’s – did the original promise of a savior who would bring peace to all men get twisted and warped into a narrow, self serving message that would keep men physically alive, but do nothing for their souls? It seems so. But I don’t think this problem is unique to the New Guinea tribesmen.
We try all kinds of techniques and methods to bring peace to our souls. The self-help section of any bookstore is overflowing with methods for restoring balance and getting yourself in a healthy mental state. Many people are willing to do anything to find peace. Anything short of acknowledging God as sovereign over everything. Anything short of submitting to doing things God’s way. We’ll often try everything else before we try God. Sadly, we miss out on a lot of peace in the interim. His peace isn’t a state of ignorant bliss – it is a place of groundedness because your life has purpose and meaning. It is knowing who you are and where you belong. It is knowing who created you and why. It is the beginning of wisdom, not the end of logic.
This Christmas, we spent much time talking with our kids – not just about the baby Jesus – but about why God made them. We used the elements of this Christmas season to show them something about their purpose and who they belong to. It breaks my heart to read stories of suicide and despair during the holiday season. Is it a coincidence that child suicide rates have risen since more and more people have begun to believe the lie that this universe and all of us in it came to be following some sort of mysterious and meaningless “beginning”? (Meaningless being the key word) Why would you stick it out if your life has no meaning and there is nothing to look forward to? One of Satan’s greatest modern deceptions began when a group of men set out to develop alternative theories of how this universe came to be. Any belief in an alternative theory means you are not subject to God’s authority. Not a new deception by Satan – just a more “scientific” one than people lived with prior to the 1700-1800’s.
The peace that the soul craves only comes from knowing God’s peace child. Peace on earth. Jesus on earth. Do you get it? There is no other road to peace. If you don’t know the peace child – but you do know that you don’t have peace – at least put Him on your list of techniques to try. This Christmas, if you uttered the words “Peace on earth” I challenge you to stop and think about what you mean – and about what those who first penned those words meant when they wrote them.
Peace. Jesus.
