Advent 2025 - Day 5 — Peace Begins Where Weapons End

Day 5 — Peace Begins Where Weapons End

Scripture: Isaiah 2:4
“They shall beat their swords into plowshares… nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.”


After World War II, an American pilot named Jacob DeShazer, who had been imprisoned and tortured in a Japanese camp, felt called to return to Japan — not as a soldier, but as a missionary. He prayed for the ability to forgive what had been done to him. That prayer changed his life.

While in Japan, he met Mitsuo Fuchida, the lead pilot of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Their conversation about forgiveness and God’s love led Fuchida to become a Christian.

The two former enemies later traveled together across Japan, sharing a message of reconciliation with crowds who could hardly believe what they were seeing.

Reflection:
God can transform hatred into healing and make peace possible where it once seemed unimaginable. He asks us to lay down the weapons we carry — often not physical weapons, but the ones we keep inside our hearts.

What inner weapon — resentment, bitterness, defensiveness — might God be asking you to lay down?

Prayer:
Prince of Peace, take the hardness from my heart and replace it with Your peace.
Show me how to become an instrument of reconciliation in my world.
Amen.