The Darkest Nights of the Year
by Peter VanderMeulen

In North America, December can be the darkest of months! Yet here, running right through the longest nights of the year, is the hopeful waiting of advent for the coming of the light of the world.
 
But somehow to my surprise, even in Israel and Palestine the days are short and the nights long. In November I hiked nearly 200 miles with four colleagues from the Reformed Church in America and we needed to be off the trail by 4:30 or 5:00pm every afternoon because it was nearly dark by that time. Somehow I thought the light would be longer and stronger there, but in winter it isn’t! As we walked through Nablus, Taybeh, Ramallah and Bethlehem in the West Bank – occupied territory – the short days and long nights seemed a fitting accompaniment to the dried out, wounded land and the general despair that we seemed to find everywhere we turned.
 
Step by step, village by village, for almost a month of walking the sense of dis-ease – of the absence of peace – flowed up from the soles of one’s feet. Honest conversations were difficult. Everyone is a victim. Few see a way to peace – except over the dead bodies of their enemies.  Worse, many who a year ago saw a little light of hope see nothing but darkness now.
 
Yet it is in this place, this environment that the Light came once…
 
It has been said many times, but it bears repeating: peace isn’t the absence of violence, it is the balance, serenity, and purpose that come from just and honest relationships – relationships with God, ourselves, and others.
 
That goes for big relationships – like that between Palestinians and Israelis, Arab and Jew – and the little relationships – like the honor and respect with which I should treat family members who cause me heart burn every year at the Christmas gathering.
 
Will the light of peace shine this season in Palestine and Israel? In Darfur and the Sudan? In Myanmar or the Congo? I’ll pray for it.  But this advent, because the big picture peace issues occupy so much of my time and attention, I want to slow down to a walk and examine my personal relationships.

• Where and with whom do I feel “not right”?
• Where are my resentments and who is the object of my reveries of revenge?
• What elephant am I trying to ignore – at home, work, with friends - that constantly keeps me unbalanced and un-peaceful?

December is a dark month, and there are many dark places we cannot much brighten – except perhaps in our own selves. Even so, it isn’t the light that I generate. It isn’t the light shed from the “big picture” work. It is a warm and peaceful “grace light” – a “hope light” - shed by our creator, sustainer, and savior who knows my name – and yours.
 
After all, the peace we receive is the only peace we have to give. It’s coming!

Prayer
God, if there are dark places that I can help to brighten, help me to see them. If there are dark places that I cannot touch, help me to pray for them. Use my life, in small and big ways, to be part of the great light that we celebrate in the birth of Jesus.

Pursue Peace
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Peter Vander Meulen is the Coordinator of the Office of Social Justice