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Prince of Peace

It is the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the First World War.  That is not a centenary that too many of us want to spend much time considering.  However, today is Christmas Eve and one hundred years ago tonight a most remarkable thing happened.  A spontaneous Christmas Eve truce broke out among the soldiers in the trenches all along the western front.  The stories left by the survivors tell us that it was begun with the singing of Christmas carols.  Songs about the Prince of Peace intruded upon the battlefield and turned men's hearts from war.

It is easy to overly sentimentalize such a moment in history.  Many songs have been written to emphasize that the war began again a few days later and continued for three more bloody years.  I prefer to commemorate this anniversary as a moment of anticipation.  One hundred years ago the Lord halted the conflict of thousands of combatants in France and Belgium.  One day in the future, the Prince of Peace will return to this earth and put an end to conflict forevermore.  Even so, Lord Jesus come!

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