Peace On Earth.
Three words, three powerful words, three words to contemplate on this Christmas Day, 2019.
Let’s go back in time for a moment — 105 years to be exact. It was the time of World War I — the war to end all wars.
The year was 1914. Europe had been locked in battle for months. On the Western Front, opposing armies fought each other across a stalemated front line running from the North Sea to the Swiss border.
On Christmas Eve, something miraculous occurred.
Nearly 100,000 soldiers from both sides of that line decided to create some peace on Earth.
They decorated their trenches and sang Christmas carols to each other across the battle-torn area called “No Man’s Land.” The soldiers from both sides left their trenches, met, smoked and drank together, and exchanged makeshift gifts. Chaplains conducted Christmas services for all. Pickup soccer matches were played between craters. For the record, Germany’s Battalion 371 beat the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, 2 to 1.
Over on the Eastern Front, there was a similar miracle, if you will, between troops from Austria and Hungary and the enemy Russians.
Sadly, the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day truce didn’t end the war. World War I dragged on for nearly four more years and more than 20 million were killed in action.
But the truce showed that peace and goodwill was possible, even in the midst of a war.
Which brings us to today, Christmas Day, 2019.
It’s a wonderful thing that there’s no professional golf anywhere this week. The PGA Tour resumes shortly with the Tournament of Champions on January 3 out in Hawaii. The European Tour cranks up again at the South African Open in Johannesburg. But no, no golf this week, a perfect time to think about the important things in life.
This will be a record retail season. Buy, buy, buy.
But what is the real reason for the season?
Christian nations celebrate the birth of The Savior — Jesus Christ. The child born in the most humble of circumstances brought an important message to the world — Hope.
That hope was for Peace, peace everywhere.
Only problem is that the world was fighting long before the time of Christ. Sadly, conflict was and remains a fact of life in the Middle East.
We’ve been at war with terrorists around the globe for 18 years and no end appears in sight.
What we have to do is grab on to that feeling of Hope that came with the birth of the Child Jesus.
Maybe we should look around us and see how we might make our cities and towns more peaceful. Maybe we should hope that one day our political scene can become more peaceful.
There’s conflict everywhere you look.
But on this special, holy day, why don’t we simply put our differences aside like those battling troops did back on Christmas, 1914?
It would sure help.
Goodness knows we can all be thankful for a day of peace.
Perhaps it would lead to another, then another.
And that is exactly what our world needs in 2020.
