Was there peace all round the world in 1995?
As I tucked my daughter into bed tonight, we opened her favourite book. It’s a 1995 publication from UNICEF titled Children Just Like Me. I was thrilled to find it at a 2nd hand book sale for $2 because it was a book that I remember reading during my childhood. Like my daughter, I spent hours looking at the smiling faces and memorising the names of the children from all around the world.
Anabel Kindersley & Barnabas Kindersley, “Children Just Like Me: A Unique Celebration of Children Around the World”, published 9th September 1995 by DK Children in collaboration with UNICEF.
Rachel lives in a chateau in France.
Edgar, a crowded bamboo hut in the Philippines.
Sisters Olia and Dasha have beautiful dresses for ballet classes at the Russian Ballet School.
Thi Lien has a beautiful ‘batik’ patterned skirt steeped in Vietnamese fabric tradition.
The central message of the book is that while the children may be different in so many ways we can also celebrate what they have in common with each other.
“They love to play ball and hide-and-seek, and they enjoy going to school.
They worry about wars and wish for peace.”
As we turn the pages together, we see countries in the world where their children are peacefully juxtaposed in the book, whilst in reality those countries are now at war. I notice the World Trade centres behind Taylor’s apartment building in New York that are no longer standing today. The tragedy of conflict is subtly present on nearly every page.
The human heart longs for peace, no matter their age. This is one of the reasons why I love PeaceWise and the peacemaking principles. They speak hope into conflict for every generation and culture. God is continuing to open doors for PeaceWise to share biblical peacemaking principles internationally with our conflict-weary world.
I notice that a love of food- often a type of bread- features in the stories shared by the children. Food is such an important part of culture! It seems Jesus knew what he was doing when he called himself bread!
“I am the bread of life…” John 6:35
In declaring himself to be bread, Jesus makes it clear that the bread he offers is for anyone- the whole world! Our need to be nourished, our experience of hunger and our desire to connect over food are deeply human experiences. Sadly, conflict can also be a common reality- but Jesus, the Prince of Peace, is our shared hope.
When we are in the midst of conflict, recognising our own needs and then seeking to understand the needs of others gives us an opportunity to seek help from the Prince of Peace together. As we look to Jesus, rather than continuing to be divided by our differences we humbly pray for our hearts to be drawn together by our shared experiences as children of God.
“God blessed those who are poor and realise their need for him,
for the Kingdom of God is theirs.” Matthew 5:3
This devotional was written by Lucy Dessington. Lucy is an apprentice of the ultimate Peacemaker- Jesus and a passionate member of the PeaceWise board. She loves discovering more of God’s character through her love of gardening and art, when she can enjoy a quiet moment amidst the busy-ness of work & family life with a young toddler.
