12-25-25<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some wars are years, or generations, festering; some start on a random morning, or so it seems. But one thing we seldom encounter is peace<\/em> breaking out. In the midst of a raging war, interrupting a bloody battle. Yet it has happened. Not many people know about the Christmas Truce. It was a virtual miracle during the first Christmas, in 1914, of World War I \u2013 the so-called Great War, surely the most useless of history\u2019s many useless wars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A few months after war was declared in Europe, by almost every big and small nation on the continent, almost a million soldiers already had been slaughtered. Christmastime had come, and soldiers were mired in trenches that were to become so established that for more than two years the battle line never moved more than 30 miles one direction or another. In that unlikely hellhole a miracle occurred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Minor details differ but the dispositive facts are acknowledged: Peace broke out<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Soldiers of Germany, England (Scotland, actually), and France, at night, spontaneously sang Christmas carols\u2026 and were joined by their \u201cenemies\u201d who could hear across No Man\u2019s Land. Nervous soldiers climbed from trenches to greet their foes, and shake hands; gifts were exchanged, even little trinkets, but also pastries and wine that had been sent from home. They shared pictures of wives and children\u2026 sang more hymns\u2026 and flares, intended to illuminate battlefields so to aim the cannons, were now shot skyward in celebration. There were tentative, but successful, attempts to communicate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course they communicated. The languages that night were hymns and Bibles and chocolates and cigars. Handshakes and smiles and tears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A Merry Christmas. A Holy Christmas. Peace on earth\u2026 at least in that narrow 27-mile-long battle line, south of Ypres and east of Armentieres, site of the song about les Mademoiselles<\/em>, that night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A British soldier recalled the Christmas Truce almost two decades later: We stuck up a board with a Merry Christmas on it. The enemy had stuck up a similar one. \u2026 Two of our men then threw their equipment off and jumped on the parapet with their hands above their heads. Two of the Germans did the same and commenced to walk up the river bank, our two men going to meet them. They met and shook hands and then we all got out of the trench.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n We and the Germans met in the middle of No Man\u2019s Land. Their officers were also now out. Our officers exchanged greetings with them.\u2026 One of their men, speaking in English, mentioned that he had worked in Brighton for some years and that he was fed up to the neck with this damned war and would be glad when it was all over. We told him that he wasn\u2019t the only one that was fed up with it<\/em> [Frank Richards, \u201cOld Soldiers Never Die,\u201d 1933].<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another history records: [The British Brigadier General G.T. Forrestier-Walker<\/em>] issued a directive forbidding fraternization: \u201cFor it discourages initiative in commanders, and destroys offensive spirit in all ranks.\u2026 Friendly intercourse with the enemy, unofficial armistices and exchange of tobacco and other comforts, however tempting and occasionally amusing they may be, are absolutely prohibited\u201d<\/em> [Stanley Weintraub, \u201cSilent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce,\u201d 2001]. Officers commanded that their men stopped these spontaneous endorsements of peace. After all, they had wars to run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How much different would the next day have been \u2013 how much different would the world be today<\/em> \u2013 if the Truce had held?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Note that chocolates and cigars were only the presents<\/em>. The GIFTS<\/em> were hymns and Bible verses \u2013 they<\/em> brought the soldiers out of trenches; not the prospect of snacks or smokes or a soccer game in the snow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Christmas. God did not intend for Jesus\u2019s Incarnation, the spirit of that Christmas Truce, to be a one-time miracle; but to be everyday life<\/em>. He intended that we know-and-show that love and fellowship can be normal, not rare. We can be changed by the Holy Day, not be annoyed by yet another holiday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou started it!\u201d \u201cNo, you did!!!\u201d Wouldn\u2019t it be great if we all exchanged those words happily, about starting love, sharing affection, and living in Heavenly Peace?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Who \u201cstarted it\u201d? God did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n