This has always been one of my favorite stories of all time. According to several British accounts, the real breakthrough came when they began singing “Oh come all ye faithful” and the Germans joined in with the Latin “Adeste fidelis.” I cant think of any better present for the faithful to have given Christ for his birthday that year than to extend to each other the free and simple gifts of love and mercy, even if only temporarily.

Of course, the story is just as significant without the religious connotation. In the midst of something so brutal and barbaric as war, the light of simple humanity seems even brighter than usual when it’s allowed to shine. Those men could have been friends, should have been able to be friends. They had so much more in common with each other than the rulers who sent them into war to be slaughtered. Had they been born a few hundred miles away they would have been fighting in the opposite trench with as much conviction and certainty in their own cause. Most wars are a waste, but WWI especially so.