The Christmas Miracle

In his book, Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce, Stanley Weintraub tells the true story of one of the most amazing events to occur during wartime. In 1914, the armies of Europe had become bogged down in a new and horrible type of warfare, called trench warfare. Over hundreds of miles, millions of men lived in trenches, trading fire with enemy soldiers as close as sixty yards away. During the first months of the war, the fighting had been fierce, causing hundreds of thousands of casualties.

On Christmas Eve, a group of German soldiers placed some candles on small trees and set them on the edge of their trench. One German soldier began to sing the familiar German carol, Silent Night. Soldiers on the British side responded by singing other carols. Hand made signs offering a truce began to appear up and down the line. Soon men began to venture out into “no man’s land” to greet each other and exchange gifts of chocolate cake, cognac, postcards, newspapers, and tobacco.

It was also a time to bury the dead who up to this point had been unreachable in “no man’s land.” At one point, soldiers from both sides stood around a fresh grave and quoted the 23rd Psalm together. As Christmas day dawned, the truce began to spread up and down the lines. At one point a British soldier pulled out a soccer ball and the Germans proceeded to beat the British in a pick-up soccer game.

Unfortunately the truce was short lived. Within days the war was back with all of its ferocity and violence. Though three more Christmas’s would come and go, there would be no more truces. By the time the war ended in November of 1918, 8 million would die and another 21 million would be wounded.

A relatively unknown Scottish poet Frederick Niven, writing about the event in his poem, A Carol from Flanders, summed up the sentiments of millions in his day and ours:
O ye who read this truthful rime
From Flanders, kneel and say:
God speed the time when every day
Shall be as Christmas Day.

My friend, in the midst of the frustration and business of life, may the Lord grant you a peaceful and restful Christmas, surrounded by family and friends. May the joy of Christ and the hope of the gospel be yours in abundance.

Shoulder to Shoulder,

Gregg