The Christmas Truce
It was Christmas Eve 1914.
The Great War—later called World War I—had been raging for five months.
In Belgium, soldiers on opposite sides fought the war from long, narrow trenches dug in the ground.
The area between them was called “No Man’s Land.”
Thousands of soldiers on both sides were killed in these trenches or in No Man’s Land.
But on Christmas Eve, the British troops heard the Germans singing Christmas carols.
Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht, alles schläft, einsam wacht …
The British started to sing, too.
Silent night! Holy night! All is calm, all is bright …
They were singing in different languages, but songs about the birth of our Savior are universal.
The spirit of the season—Jesus Christ’s message of peace, love, and forgiveness—began to overtake the soldiers on both sides.
Most of them were young Christian men spending their first Christmas away from home.
The soldiers put down their weapons and cautiously crawled out of their trenches into No Man’s Land.
No one fired a shot.
These young men—“enemies” only because of which country they were from—began to talk.
“Merry Christmas!”
“Frohe Weihnachten!”
They exchanged small gifts such as candy and souvenirs.
They kicked a football around.
They took time to bury their dead.
Inevitably, the war had to resume.
But the world would always remember the Christmas truce.
It showed that faith in the Savior, Jesus Christ, can bring the one thing that everyone wants:
Peace.