P
Peace is a word we read about
especially at Christmas time, on
Christmas cards. We associate a
dove with peace which again is
usually on greetings cards. We
also hear of many stories about
war and peace, including this one
below which seems to be one of
the most popular:
Momentary Peace
“The Christmas Truce of 1914 is
often celebrated as a symbolic
moment of peace in an otherwise
devastatingly violent war. We may
like to believe that for just one day,
all across the front, men from both
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sides emerged from the trenches
and met in No Man’s Land to
exchange gifts and play football.
But first-hand testimonies help us
get closer to what really happened.
Along the Western Front, a
scattered series of small-scale
ceasefires did happen between
some German and British forces.
But this brief festive reprieve was
far from a mass event. Where it
didn’t occur, 25 December 1914
was a day of war like any other.
Where it did, accounts suggest
that men sang carols and in some
cases left their trenches and met
in No Man’s Land. However, the
October - December 2016
motivations for such events were
complex – practical as much as
‘magical’ – and this wasn’t the
first unofficial truce to take place.
Instead, it was to be one of the
last.” ...Dan Snow Broadcaster &
Historian
But what does peace mean as
defined by the dictionary? It means
- Freedom from disturbance; quiet
and tranquillity, calm, restfulness,
law and order. When we come to
the Bible and see the word peace
what does it mean then? We seem
to have come to accept the former
without exploring the latter.