Christmas eve truce 1914I know, it's July, and it's hot. But this is a happening with heart, and it cannot wait.
Joyeux Noël. Merry Christmas. True story.
A miracle works its way gently into the hearts and minds of troops shooting at each other from WW I trenches in France.
Three lieutenants – Scottish, German, and French – agree to a Christmas eve truce. Some 600 soldiers leave their rifles behind and tentatively cross the war-scarred frozen earth to exchange pieces of chocolate, share photos of loved ones, play soccer, and –- discover they do not hate each other.
By mutual agreement, they extend the truce to Christmas day -- so that each side can bury their dead.
When the Germans get word that the Scottish and French lines will be shelled in ten minutes, they invite their former enemies to take shelter in the German trenches. The allied troops reciprocate, and the Germans shelter in the allied trenches when the bombardment is returned.
The big brass arrive at the front and order firing to resume, but the soldiers will not fire at one another. Their Christmas truce is exposed, and they are all punished for fraternizing with the enemy by being sent to different and more dangerous fronts.
This story strikes home because my maternal grandfather was there. My mom’s father, Walter, was with those Scottish troops on December 24, 1914, and he told his children about that amazing Christmas Eve truce.
It’s hard to relate that war to Iraq and Afghanistan today – where there is no front, and the enemy is not obvious; where the danger is unseen ambushes and hidden Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs).
Yet the constant is universal humanity. The constant is one universal God who is Love. The constant is Christ, the divine goodness expressed in each of us. The constant is a universal yearning for peace and good-will.
Peace begins in the hearts and minds of individuals – you and me. We have it within our ability to bring peace to our own sphere – our families, friends, neighbors, colleagues. It's a place to start.
The Christian apostle Paul wrote, “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”
The more our lives are defined by our relationship to this God of Love, the more stable and grounded will be our inner peace, the more others will feel this calm. Inner peace allows intelligent, thoughtful, out-of-the-box solutions to emerge and influence the world scene.
3 comments:
thanks for this Sandi, it's going right on my Netflix list!
Thx Sandi -
Your prayer for peace - reflected in this post - comes through loud and clear.
My German cousin fought the British in Africa. They were fighting over a wine cellar! Each wanted to have it. Each one thought the fighting had stopped. The Germans had their hands on the door. The British had their hands on the door. At the same time.
They looked at each other and said, Peace. we will get drunk together. And they did.
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