By Cathy Hird

Some of the writings attributed to the Hebrew prophet Isaiah are poetic. When he speaks of peace, he talks about the lion and lamb curling up to sleep side by side. That is not going to happen in this world, but the metaphor helps us to imagine change that seems impossible.

Today, I want to think about a different kind of promise. Isaiah said to his people in exile in Babylon that God was doing a new thing: soon they would build a house and live in it; they would plant a vineyard and eat of its fruit; babies would grow up and grow old. (Isaiah 65: 20-23) This is an ordinary picture of a world that works as it should.

For some people that seems as impossible as the lion and lamb curling up together. Isaiah's people had seen their city destroyed, the wall and the temple torn down stone by stone. They had seen orchards and vineyards burned to the ground. They had watched people die. And since then, all they had known was exile. They were living in a foreign land as servants. They did not own land to plant, and they could not be sure of the home they lived in.

In our world today, there are many who know this kind of disaster. The land of Syria is such a place. The fighting has gone on for so long, with no end in sight and no sense of what a solution would look like. The only thing the people can imagine is escape, but it is not clear where they can escape to.

Southern Sudan also knows this kind of disaster. The creation of this separate country seemed a way out of the conflict in that area, but after years of fighting, getting an economy and food production going is not easy. Let us not forget the Democratic Republic of Congo either.

Places devastated by earthquake and hurricane are still recovering even if they are out of the news. From time to time, the damaged nuclear plant in Japan comes back into our awareness but stories of rebuilding that takes years don't make good TV.

There are many in our world who just want the world to get back to normal. There are many for whom planting a radish seed and getting to see it grow seems impossible.

So for the people Isaiah wrote to the idea of going home is a dream. But Isaiah says it is going to happen. He claims they can plant an orchard and eat its fruit. The picture is ordinary, but really ordinary is all they want and need.

And that is what peace looks like. That is what wholeness looks like. When we work to build peace we are not trying to get the lion and lamb to lie down together. We are working for the conditions that allow an orchard to thrive

I think that helps us figure out our choices. There are some things that are not going to happen. We are not going to eliminate ambition. We are not going to wipe out past tragedies. Some peoples are going to be angry with each other for a long time to come. We have to be realistic in our expectations.

But that does not mean lower our expectations.

When looking at ways to help Syrian refugees right now, I discovered that the United Church's aid begins with food aid in the camps and in the land. The first thing is survival. But then there is funding to provide school for children. And there is a program that promotes education for girls in particular. Going to school is a pretty ordinary thing. But in a hurriedly constructed refugee camp, going to school is something of a miracle. Promoting equality in education looks toward the future.

As we seek peace for the people, we need to remember that all the families hope for is to watch their children grow up and to play with their grandchildren. People long for a stable home. What we seek are the conditions that allow that to happen. We're not trying to make the two sides in the conflict curl up together on the couch. It's okay if they live side by side and still dislike each other, as long as the bombing stops.

Peace has a very ordinary look to it.
Cathy Hird is a farmer, minister and writer living near Walters Falls.