We live in a world filled with violence and war. It is impossible to get around that fact. Some would say this is a new phenomenon. I guess I would have to disagree. It is pretty obvious that mankind has been involved in armed conflict from the beginning. Yet, this last century has certainly see an increase in the number and voracity of the killings. There is a story about World War I that brings some encouragement.
Amid the horrors of World War I, there occurred a unique truce when for a few hours, enemies behaved like brothers.
Christmas Eve in 1914 was all quiet on France’s Western Front, from the English Channel to the Swiss Alps. Trenches came within 50 miles of Paris. The war was only five months old, and approximately 800,000 men had been wounded or killed. Every soldier wondered whether or not Christmas Day would bring another round of fighting and killing. But something happened: British soldiers raised “Merry Christmas” signs above the trenches, and soon carols were heard from German and British trenches alike.
Christmas dawned with unarmed soldiers leaving their trenches, though officers of both sides tried unsuccessfully to stop their troops from meeting the enemy in the middle of no-man’s land for songs and conversation. Exchanging small gifts, they passed Christmas Day peacefully along miles of the front. At one spot, the British played soccer with the Germans, who won 3-2.
In some places, the spontaneous truce continued the next day as neither side was willing to fire the first shot. Finally, the war resumed when fresh troops arrived, and the high command of both armies ordered that further “informal understanding” with the enemy would be punishable as treason.

What encourages me is that man has the capacity to love our brother is we will work at it.  And truly the peace from the Prince of Peace will one day rule upon this earth.  Maybe as we celebrate His first coming, we can witness His second.