Peace on Earth. Good will toward men. Perhaps the two loftiest, most idealistic thoughts of the holidays. I want peace on earth and good will toward men to become a reality.
And I know a new year is coming, a new decade even, and I’m supposed to be hopeful, and don’t get me wrong, I am, personally, for many good things ahead. But if I’m going to be completely honest I’m also looking ahead to this election year and all the rancor and anger and bitterness and all the low roads that will be taken and the lack of dignity that will be on display from all sides, and I’m already discouraged and exhausted.
It’s frustrating that I can’t see a way through it all, but what I find most comforting at times like this are the simple human experiences that the holidays do best. Like my granddaughter Olivia resting her tired head on my shoulder at Disneyland. I felt her little body take a deep breath and relax because she felt safe in my arms and all I want at that moment is to keep her safe, and at that moment all the things that are most important in this life come into crystal clear focus and nothing else matters.
The truth is, all that really matters in this life is peace on earth and good will toward men. Not power or control or wealth or winning the argument or being right. Just Olivia resting on my shoulder—peace on Earth, good will toward men.
It reminds me of the Christmas Truce of 1914 when peace spontaneously broke out along several stretches of battlefield on the Western Front in World War I. German and British soldiers with orders to kill one another were hunkered down just a stones throw away from one another on Christmas Eve 1914. One side would hear a Christmas carol coming from the enemy trenches across no-man’s-land and join in. Before they knew it soldiers were setting down their rifles, overcoming their fears and climbing out of their trenches. They shared food. They sang songs. They showed each other pictures of their families back home. Some even got together for mid battlefield soccer games.
The one thing that really stands out to me about that night was permission not to fight came from the trenches, not from headquarters. Their superiors on both sides were quite upset that peace was breaking out, cuz that’s not how you win a war. But for those men with bloodstained uniforms for whom war was not some theory, for that brief moment they layed aside their orders for what was most important in life—peace on earth, good will toward men.
The Christmas Truce of 1914 did not stop the war. Just as these feeble thoughts of mine will not stop what’s coming. But a few very blessed souls on that night, with the courage to set aside orders from their own side, got to experience the best of what it means to be human. Peace on Earth. Good will toward men. It really happened. And that gives me hope.
The holidays always serve to remind me that no matter what lies ahead, if regular people can lay aside their wounds and their anger and their hurt and their stories and remember what’s most important, then there’s always hope that even in this deeply messed up world we can build ourselves a beautiful life.
Happy holidays everyone.