Advent - the start of a new world - inspired by Nelson Mandela

Today Nelson Mandela died. I was in the tube in Hong Kong when I heard the news. Its taking a while to process what it may mean for me...at age 95 one of the most courageous and challenging people in the world to me has died. There are many people in South Africa whose deaths are not properly accounted for but he is not one of them. His passing reminds me that another world is possible in THIS world. It is obtainable by a wide variety of means - not all of us agree about how to live in peace, make peace, bring peace, establish peace, keep peace...but it must be with some kind of justice for those who have been wronged or oppressed in that process. South Africa is still not a peace-filled country and many other places are not. My prayers this Advent are for the coming of the Peace whom I see embodied in some peoples lives in Taiwan and in the UK. In the rush of consumerism that is here in Hong Kong this Advent we need peace, justice and to remember and be inspired again by courageous and challenging men, women and children around the world who bring the start of a new world a little bit closer. Come, breathe of heaven and stir up the world again.