23 DECEMBER 2023

 

Peace

“Peace on earth.” (Luke 2:14)

On Christmas Eve, 1914, the world was at war and on the Western Front, where some of the bloodiest confrontations took place, men on both sides of the conflict were now questioning the optimistic view expressed 6 months earlier “that the war would be over by Christmas.”

But on this Christmas Eve – the first of WW1 – something remarkable happened.

In one trench, a German soldier began singing “Stille Nacht”” and then from the British trench, a soldier responded by singing the second verse in English - we know the carol as “Silent Night” – and when the carol was concluded, soldiers from both sides agreed to meet up in the middle of “No Man’s Land.”

Men who had been firing bullets at each other earlier that day were now shaking hands, singing songs, and sharing tobacco and wine with one another. One soldier wrote that “there was not an atom of hate on either side” and another recorded in his diary, “Here we were laughing and chatting to men whom only a few hours before we were trying to kill!”

It’s worth reflecting on some of the words in that beautiful old carol, Silent Night, and as you do, notice how the themes of peace, salvation, and grace flow through it:

“Silent night, holy night!
All is calm, all is bright.

Holy infant so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace…

Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia,
Christ the Saviour is born…

Radiant beams from Thy holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace.”

Peace, salvation, and grace – this is what the birth of Jesus ushered into the world. And for a few brief hours on Christmas Eve 1914, as enemy soldiers sang about the Saviour of the world, they also extended peace and grace to each other.
When we put our trust in Jesus our inner world is transformed by the grace of God’s forgiveness, and we can offer that grace to others.

Silent night, holy night…

To whom can you offer grace and forgiveness this Christmas?