Christmas Edition: The Truce, He is the Prince of Peace

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Christmas is upon us once again!  It’s my favorite time of year.  Each year,  I make huge batches of fudge for family and friends at work, create and send hundreds of Christmas cards, decorate the house, listen to carols, bake cookies, and watch Christmas movies all month long. I spend as much time as I can with my kids and grandkids.  Here we are, just a few days before Christmas, and once again this year, among all the bustle of the season, I try to remind myself of the true spirit of Christmas and the reason for the holiday.

The life I lead makes it easy to be grateful!  Between faith, family, home, and work I am truly blessed.  Outside of my peaceful little bubble, things get muddy.  The great political divide our country struggles with, the growing conflict in the Middle East, school shootings across the country, and seemingly endless weather events, all point to a world in turmoil. At the same time, I soldier on buying presents and baking cookies.  

The turmoil becomes too loud to push to the back of my mind when I learn of yet another bombing, hurricane, or senseless shooting.  The same dull, gut-wrenching, heart-breaking feeling washes over me, once again.  I pray.  I ask myself when the hatred and killing will end.  It’s Christmas time, and along with the Christ child came the promise of peace.  Where is the promised peace?  

While all this rolls around in my head, my heart craves healing. An article popped into view recently that offered a sense of peace.  It is the story of the famous cease-fire during the Great War in 1914. Have you ever heard of Bois de Ploegsteert or Machine Gunner Bruce Bairnsfather?  I hadn’t until I read the account of the WWI ceasefire out on the battlefield on Christmas Eve in 1914 between British and German armies.    

I hope to do the story justice as I retell the details from the article I read.  Here goes:   A British machine gunner named Bruce Bairnsfather, a member of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, was hunkered down in his foxhole alongside hundreds of fellow soldiers, as night began to fall. The faint sound of German singing broke through the silence.  It was a dark, quiet Christmas Eve and the fighting and killing was paused for the night while the soldiers collected their dead from the neutral ground.  The hushed voices of the German soldiers began to break through the fear and darkness.  They were singing the carol, Silent Night, in English.  Soon some timid British soldiers joined in the singing.  A voice with a German accent called out in English, “Come over here.” One of the British sergeants responded, “You come halfway. I come halfway.” 

They called out to each other and slowly at first, one by one, the troops from both sides cautiously climbed out of their muddy shelters and met face-to-face in a space called “no man’s land.”  Bairnsfather captured what came next in his memoir.  “Here they were—the actual, practical soldiers of the German army. There was not an atom of hate on either side.”  Soldiers exchanged cigarettes and cigars.  They shook hands, laughed, and chatted together.  At some point, along the lines, someone threw out a ball and a soccer game broke out.  All of this is evidenced in diaries and letters of the time, written by these men.

John Ferguson, another British soldier, documented his recollection, “ Here we were laughing and chatting to men whom only a few hours before we were trying to kill!”

It didn’t take a command, or a directive from the commander’s-in-chief, to bring forth these acts of brotherhood and peace. It came from the hearts and minds of the soldiers on both sides of the line who craved a sense of true Christmas peace. They were yearning for peace.  And, for just one night, in a moment filled with faith, those soldiers caught a glimpse of Love’s pure light. They lived the message of the Christ child.

I am imagining what this Christmas would be like if we all followed the example of the armies in WWI, who declared a truce during wartime on Christmas Eve. Imagine our extreme opinions and events yielding to the soft plea, “If you come halfway, I come halfway.”  Imagine if we paused our busyness,  checked our biases, and stopped to embrace our fellow man.  Imagine the joy we would all experience in that bright moment.

As I polish off this piece of writing early on Christmas Eve morning when the house is quiet and the lights from the tree illuminate the room, I am filled with gratitude for the Christ child who was born so simply and sweetly in a manger, and whose prophecy is fulfilled everywhere, whenever we reach for it.  For He truly is The Prince of Peace.

   “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;

   And the government will rest on His shoulders;

   And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

   Eternal Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6).

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Merry

From the article: WWI’s Christmas Truce: When Fighting Paused for the Holiday.  By: A.J. Bailey & Volker Jansen  Updated: December 10, 2024, Original: October 29, 2018

Thank you family and friends for joining me for the 3rd annual LIVE reading of my Christmas story "The Little Snowman and the Star." It has become a special family tradition that gives me great joy to share with you during the holidays.

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