The Peace Candle | Advent Devotional Day 1

Advent 2025 DevotionalCore | Peace
November 30, 2025
Written by Rev. Charity Goodwin

Title: The Peace Candle

Scripture:

My Reflection

I looked up from my computer and saw an item on my bookshelf that I hadn’t placed there. It was a candle. I smiled thinking ‘who gave me this?’

The Peacemaking candle came from my friend and Day 1 Pastor Adam (we started at The Gathering on the same day). On the candle is a striking image by St. Louis based artist Kelly Latimore, a dark-skinned Jesus wearing a light blue robe holding a broken piece of a machine gun in his hands. The weapon, snapped in two, becomes a symbol of disarmed violence and reclaimed peace.

Adam “hid” this candle for me and I found it when I was feeling heart tight, spirit weary, but still hopeful. In his gentle way, he said the work I do is peacemaking. At first I resisted that word. My work requires assertiveness, advocacy, and sometimes real challenge. I step into rooms of tension and call things by their name. It doesn’t always feel peaceful. But as I studied the image, I realized: peacemaking isn’t passive. It’s courageous. It’s the holy act of breaking what harms so that healing can begin.

Colossians calls us to a peace that controls our hearts. Furthermore, a peace that is exuded in community with others - church. As we take this journey through PEACE this Advent may we desire peace to control our hearts and be exuded in our relationships. And sometimes in the search for peace we will need to use our voice, speak truth in love, or stand up for one who doesn’t have power. Unfortunately, we can sometimes view these things negatively - even as weapons.Yet, they are tools of peacemaking.

In community, in church also known as “the body” in Colossians, we’re invited to embody the peace of Christ in church. If we show up to worship and go home, I bet we do a good job embracing that peace. But it’s when we’re in relationships and proximity with others as in CoreGroups, Wellness Groups, or serving teams that we get to really practice the peace of Christ because our lives intersect and bump into others’. It’s a lesson to me that to know peace we may choose to risk being in community.

My Prayer:
 
Prince of Prince, thank you for showing up in the light of a candle. When I am tempted to confuse peace with silence, remind me that your peace is alive, active. Help me to do the hard work of breaking what harms so peace can flourish. Help me also to risk being in this church community so that I may embody the peace of Christ. Let your peace control my heart and guide my actions until harmony becomes the fruit of all I do. Amen.

Reflection Question:

• When has your pursuit of peace required courage.. to speak truth, enter tension, or stay in relationship when it would have been easier to withdraw? What might Christ’s peace be asking you to risk now?

Sign up to receive the Advent Devotional here.