Do we ever take the Advent promises literally???  What a glorious future is laid before us, if only we have courage to believe! It has been promised ‘plowshares beaten into pruning hooks . . . no more war, war never again . . . no more harm to anyone . . . no one shall do what is wrong . . . all liars and braggarts will be taken away . . . there shall be peace . . . hunger satisfied . . . rich foods . . . and most of all, peace.’

We have been promised an era of peace. Is it only in the next world that this will take place? Perhaps. In that sense, our entire lifetimes are an Advent of waiting, of expectation, of hope. But it is not beyond God’s power to grant us peace in this world also. It seems impossible. Yet, nothing is impossible to God. As St Paul tells us, ‘in a twinkling of an eye all may be changed.’  God has promised. God will do it.