Advent 2025 - Day 8 — Peace In The Unlikely Place

Day 8 — Peace In The Unlikely Place
Scripture: Isaiah 11:1–2
“A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him…”

In 1994, during the Rwandan genocide, a small Anglican church became an unexpected refuge. People from opposing ethnic groups fled into the sanctuary, clutching children and shaking with fear. A priest named André stepped into the center aisle and said, “If we die, we die together — but let us live as Christ taught us, even now.”

He insisted that everyone eat together, pray together, sleep in the same room, and sing the same hymns.

For weeks, the church was surrounded by violence, yet inside, people who had been conditioned to fear one another began to share food, wash each other’s wounds, and protect each other.

A United Nations worker who later visited said, “It was the only peaceful place I saw in Rwanda that month. Peace was not around them, but somehow peace grew within them.”

Wow - they grew it within them!  That is Christ's peace!

Reflection:
God grows peace in places that look like dead stumps — situations that seem hopeless, relationships that seem beyond repair, hearts that feel too wounded to heal.

Where might God be growing an unexpected “shoot” of peace in your life?

Prayer:
Prince of Peace, grow Your life in the places that feel cut down inside me.
Let Your Spirit rest on me and make me an instrument of Your peace.


Amen.