Lush greenery, sunshine, and tropical humidity are not what I currently associate with Advent and Christmastime, but when I was a young boy, living in the South Pacific, this is all I really knew. Each December my sisters and I eagerly awaited Santa’s arrival, which was going to be by out-rigger canoe. I worried about how Santa was going to get into our house to deliver presents, since neither we nor anyone within a 2000-mile radius, had a fireplace…let along a chimney. But besides these minor worries of childhood, December was somewhat idyllic. If we had known the chorus from South Pacific, we would have sung out, “We got sunlight on the sand, we got moonlight on the sea!” What more did one need in such a paradise? We knew little of the history that lay beneath our feet.

Three years ago this week, I traveled to Honolulu, Hawaii, where significant moments in my childhood had taken place. I was there not only to celebrate my “Hawaii 5-0” birthday but also to mark the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor.  Honolulu is beautiful in December: lush greenery, sunshine, cooling trade winds…and some tropical humidity, for those who enjoy such things. On December 7th, 1941, I am sure it was an equally idyllic morning. The attack came as a complete surprise. Some Honolulu locals even waved at the Japanese pilots as they sped through Oahu’s central valley. Who knew that such devastation was imminent? Isn’t Advent supposed to be about expecting something good? Peace on earth?

I remember going to visit the Pearl Harbor Monument when I was six years old. It made a lasting impression on me, looking down on the USS Arizona, submerged below the crystal clear waters. Visiting the site again just three years ago brought back all the feelings of wonder at what human beings can do to one another.  In the islands where I grew up, in the Marshalls, there was plenty of evidence of the battles that had taken place there: half-buried bunkers, downed planes, bullet-strewn concrete buildings and half-sunken ships in the harbor. I grew up with constant reminders of a tragic and horrific human conflict that had taken place only twenty years before. But I really didn’t think too much about it; this is just the way life is. Didn’t everyone hear ghost stories about Admiral Yamamoto searching for his lost button down on the beach late at night?

We celebrate Advent, looking to what God has done and looking forward to what God will do: peace, love, and joy. Right? Advent is a time outside of time. It is church time. The rest of the world goes on. If Ecclesiastes wrote an Advent blog, he’d say, “Advent is just like any other time of year. There are births and deaths, weddings, and workdays, buying and selling, battles and times of healing. Prophets speak of revolution and restoration, but really life is just a big circle. What goes around, comes around. And life goes on.” Who could blame him for such a pragmatic, yet seemingly pessimistic, viewpoint? Yes, people around us are all a-flurry getting ready for Christmas, but don’t they know it’s all vanity? All futility?

Standing above the USS Arizona, seeing the oil continue to leak up from the depths 78 years later, we could all get lost in the futility, thinking, “When will we ever learn? Won’t humanity ever be peaceful? Why memorialize past battles, anyway? Won’t humanity just keep on their destructive path, doling out death, offering only suffering and misery? Will the times ever not be so turbulent?

Jesus was born into a turbulent time. Jesus was born in a turbulent land. Thousands of years of battles had come and gone, where he was born. One could walk through Jerusalem and the surrounding towns and see the many scars left by the Assyrians, Egyptians, Babylonians, Greeks and Romans. Monuments to humanity’s ravaging ways lurked everywhere. And yet, Jesus came. God’s advent was a self-emptying, a taking up of frail flesh, a willingness to live in such a way that death lurked around every corner to snuff out such a life. We as Christians memorialize the death of this Jesus, but not as a testimony to death itself, but as a symbol of life, a symbol of hope, and a symbol of peace. Throughout the earth stand memorials to the battles fought, lost and won, but what we remember in looking to Jesus’ cross, to his coming (his advent) is the power of God’s love to conquer…that is, overcome… death.

Advent is a time to experience hope beyond earthly hope, life, peace, and joy, beyond all that the world has to offer.  Advent is a time to look around at our neighbors. Surely we see that each person bears the scars of battles fought long ago…some long buried…some only half buried. This Advent, be kind to those who are still fighting battles…or still grieving old battles. Sometimes we are called to stand beside others at their memorial places, grieving with them. Sometimes we are called to invite them, and ourselves, to step away from the past, and enter God’s eternal now, time outside earthly time, where we can celebrate the lush greenery of God’s paradise yet to come, even now being restored. In Advent we are called to live into God’s promise to restore all creation, rejoicing that he has come, and yet joining our voices with all the faithful to say, “Even so, Lord Jesus, quickly come.” In this Advent season, remember.