Today I sing ‘Christmas Day 1915’. This song tells about a temporary truce that took place on Christmas Day during ‘The First World War’ when German and British soldiers on the war front stopped firing their guns at each other for a few hours. They left their trenches and mingled with the enemy in ‘No Man’s Land’. For the next few hours, it could be said that they lived together peacefully in ‘Every Man’s Land’ as they closed-down their cannons and opened their hearts to the true spirit of Christmas, exchanging pleasantries and singing carols with each other. Then, war beckoned once more, and they returned to their respective trenches and started killing each other again.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sheila and I wish all our Facebook friends a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. This Christmas will be one of the strangest that all of us will ever have experienced. Brought out of a National lockdown with fewer restrictions being applied over several days during the Christmas week, we are being allowed the opportunity of seeing our family and loved ones again during this seasonal period while being warned not to get too close to them in confined spaces indoors. Because of the imposed restrictions of freedom we have taken for granted before the current pandemic virus swept the world, even giving an aged parent a kiss, a hug or a loving embrace carries with it the gravest of health warnings. We are told that even an action of endearment between loved ones which requires closeness and touch (especially those in the most vulnerable medical category) could result in the heaviest cost of all, with our aged parents and grandparents not living to see another Christmas?
In many ways, the national situation that families all over Britain are faced with this Christmas Day is not too dissimilar to that which the German and British soldiers faced on the Front Line of their war in 1915. For a few hours this Christmas Day, an attempt is being made between our Government and its people, who are much divided in their opinion on the best way to fight and defeat Covid-19. The Government has decided to call a brief truce to our war with the virus. For Christmas Day only, we shall be allowed to enter ‘No Man’s Land”, and mingle on the Front Line (inside our homes) with our loved ones (who may or may not carry the enemy covid-19 virus unknowingly). We are being led to fear that the closer we get to our hidden enemy, the more loving and tactile we become in their presence, the more we will be playing Russian Roulette with our own lives. It is as though our war against the enemy virus has been suspended, to allow us some semblance of a peaceful Christmas Day before we return to our trenches and continue killing each other once more by being too close to each other in our lockdown trenches. Now, there’s an image to play around with during the New Year!
May your seasonal break be one of good cheer and celebration for all the good things in your life that we too often take for granted. I refer to important things such as, one’s beliefs, family, friends, good neighbours and not forgetting health, hope, and happiness. Please give a thought to all those people who lost their partners, are grieving the loss of a family member, or experiencing loss of good health, loss of employment, loss of business, and loss of accommodation due to bankruptcy and increased debt. Christmas time is always one of the worse times to cope without those basic things of life.
So many people in this country, and across this world are permanently engaged in their own ‘War Of Want’, and this must result in the true spirit of Christmas invariably seeming more distant from their lives with the passing of each day. Whatever the season of the year, they remain engaged in a seemingly endless war they cannot see any hope of ever winning. For them, there is no respite to be found during their Christmas Day. Christmas Day for people engaged in the ‘War of Want’ witness their hearts filled with hostility instead of seasonal festivity. Where peace is found by many of the more fortunate citizens of the world on this holiest of days, those ‘in want’ feel more pain and isolation as the guns of hunger fire in their direction again, the cannons of depression blast out more despair once more, the grenades of destitution explode their future prospects of hope, the bombs of pending bankruptcy break their spirits, and the missiles of death cascade around their fragile ears and shatter any broken peace they ever felt.
The next chance we get to give one such person a better day, a happier hour, a safer minute, and a more hopeful and purposeful moment, then let us feel duty-bound as fellow humans to do so. The most we could ever want out of a good life is to diminish the want in the life of another person who is having a bad day? That is the Christmas message my mother, my church and my individual belief have always been. That is the true Christian message of December 25th and the true Christmas message of every day of the year.
One of my earliest childhood memories was my mother warning me that I will never be comfortable in any of my travels through life ‘if I was too big for my own boots’. The garment I have always found the most uncomfortable to wear is the ‘coat of modesty’, as it has no natural fit upon my body, and there is no pocket in it where I can store my pride. All the pockets in ‘the coat of modesty’ are filled with what really matters about a person and what really constitutes the building blocks of good character; honesty, love, compassion, forgiveness, charity, belief, and being a good neighbour. I always found it easier to give away my material possessions, even the ones I treasured. However, the most difficult thing I found to give up, the thing I have always most resisted giving up, and the very last thing I will probably give up, is my pride.
This Christmas, please let yourself be the good person you were always meant to be, and intrinsically are. Do not forget to be nice to yourself as well as being nice to others. Be not too hard on yourself or others when we or they do not come up to scratch, and remember, it is impossible to be able to truly forgive others for any past wrongs they have done you until you are prepared to forgive yourself for your past misgivings to others.
The greatest of all presents you will receive this Christmas is the one you most willingly give away; the gift of love. This is the most priceless of all possessions, and the more you express it towards others, the more loving reward you will receive in return. It is the best personal investment you will ever make as the dividend that comes back to you never stops, and always exceeds the amount of love you initially invest in your thoughts, feelings, and actions. Happy Christmas everyone.
Love and peace Bill and Sheila xxx