FORMED IN PEACE

Monday, the second week of advent devotion comes from Michael Hoy's, "Light of Grace: Devotions for Advent."

Yet, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all work of your hand. Isaiah 64:8

---

Author's Reflection

Peace is, first and foremost, the grace of reconciliation with God. Only in that peace may we come to God, who is our loving and gracious Father.

Isaiah's first word, "Yet" acknowledges this. The people of God carry the heavy and darkening burden of their sins: and God does not overlook accountability for those sins. But God can, and does, forgive sins through our Lord Jesus Christ, in whose mercy and grace we now stand. We trust in Christ's peace. And because of Christ, we trust that the God who created us and formed us from the dust of the ground, like a potter with clay, is our Father. Indeed, through Christ, we confidently pray to God, "you are our Father." This is the light of our peace with God.

We also trust, that through Christ, God now reshapes and restores us for the ministry of reconciliation - the sharing of peace. Through Christ's grace, we are sent out with the "treasures" of the Gospel in the very "clay jars" of our own bodies, "so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us" (2 Corinthians 4:7). "Yet" as we are indeed graced by Christ, we get to share Christ's light of peace and forgiveness with others.

---

Author's Prayer

Father, mold us in Christ as lights of your peace for the world. Amen.