From time to time

Ecclesiastes 3 tells us that there is a time for war, and a time for peace.

Isaiah 2 speaks of beating swords into ploughshares and spears into pruning-hooks.

Joel 3 gives a call to beat ploughshares into swords and pruning-hooks into spears.

Micah 4 echoes Isaiah’s vision of beating swords into ploughshares and spears into pruning-hooks.

There is something in this that is concerned with transitions, from peace-time to war, and from war service to civilian life.

Today I think of my grandfather who was involved in the liberation of Belsen and suffered what today we would call PTSD. And, also, the reality that today’s veterans are disproportionally represented in our prisons and living on our streets.

To be peace-makers must surely involve commitment to those who have served in war, who have been trained/shaped for that time and need to be retrained/shaped for life after war, who need peace and healing.