The first months of World War 1 had seen a German attack through Belgium into France, repulsed outside Paris by French and British troops at the Battle of the Marne in September, 1914.  The Germans fell back to the Aisne Valley and prepared defensive positions.  In the subsequent Battle of the Aisne, the Allied forces were unable to push through the German line, and fighting was at a stalemate; neither side was willing to give ground. Both started to develop fortified trenches.  On the right of the German army, there had been no defined front line, and both sides quickly began to use this gap to outflank one another.  In the “Race to the Sea’, each tried to push forward and threaten the other’s line.  After several months British forces were withdrawn from the Aisne and sent north to Flanders and the northern flank developed into a similar stalemate.  By November, there was a continuous front line running from the North Sea to the Swiss frontier, occupied on both sides.

In the week leading up to Christmas something truly unprecedented happened, The Christmas Truce.  It started with German soldiers placing candles on their trenches and singing Christmas carols.  The British responded by singing Christmas carols of their own and continued by shouting Christmas greeting to each other.  Soon thereafter, there were excursions across No Man’s Land, where small gifts were exchanged, such as food, tobacco and alcohol, and souvenirs such as buttons and hats.  The artillery in the region fell silent that night and allowed a breathing spell where recently fallen soldiers could be brought back by buriel parties.  Joint services were held.  The fraternization was not without risks; some soldiers were shot by opposing forces.  In many sectors, the truce lasted through Christmas night, but it continued until New Year’s Day in others.  The truce itself was unofficial, but in all about 100,000 British and German soldiers were involved.

If soldiers in one of the deadliest wars in modern history can stop harming each other, why cannot we do the same to those around us?  Jesus said in Matthew 5:9, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God”.  We often find ourselves fighting instead of making peace.  The biggest obstacle to peace is the person who looks at us in the mirror each day.  Paul writes in Galatians 5:22 that peace is one of the fruits of the spirit.  We obtain it by practicing it.  Soldiers can put down their weapons for a week, can we not put down our harmful words as well?