Wednesday, December 3, 2003

May the LORD give strength to his people! May the LORD bless his people with peace!
(Psalm 29.11 NRSV)

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There was a famous incident amid the horrors of World War I that some of you may be familiar with. Christmas Eve, 1914. All was quiet on France's Western Front, from the English Channel to the Swiss Alps. The war was only five months old, and approximately 800,000 men had been wounded or killed. But on that Christmas eve something happened--something unique in man's bloody history. British soldiers raised "Merry Christmas" signs above their trenches. The hated Germans responded in kind. Soon carols were heard from German and British trenches alike.

Christmas Day found unarmed soldiers from both sides meeting the enemy in the middle of no-man's land for song and conversation. Exchanging small gifts, they passed Christmas Day peacefully. This unusual outbreak of peace occurred for miles along the battlefront. At one spot, the British played soccer with the Germans, who won 3-2.

In some places, the spontaneous truce continued the next day as neither side was willing to fire the first shot. Finally, fighting was resumed when fresh troops arrived, and the high command of both armies ordered that further "informal understandings" with the enemy would be punishable as treason.

Christmas--a small pocket of sanity in an insane world. Jesus comes as an peace offering from God.

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Dear God, thank you for sending me the peace of Christ. Amen.

Ron Newhouse

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