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Good morning.  ‘One Christmas was so much like another… that I can never remember whether it snowed for six days and six nights when I was twelve, or whether it snowed for twelve days and twelve nights when I was six…’ So begins ‘A child’s Christmas in Wales’, that magical short story reflecting the wonder of childhood originally recorded for radio by the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, the centenary of whose birth we’ve been celebrating this year. 

Of course we’ve also been commemorating another centenary - the hundredth anniversary of the outbreak of the first World War, that great military conflict which would cost the lives of millions of soldiers and civilians over the next four long years. This was the war originally supposed to be ‘over by Christmas’; but instead, Christmas 1914 found soldiers bunkered down in trenches, separated by just a few hundred yards of ‘no man’s land’. 

Amazingly, on that first Christmas, it seems there emerged a series of local ceasefires during which soldiers from opposing sides first sang carols, then ventured out to greet one another, and at least in a few places gathered to play some unofficial games of football. Of course it didn’t last; such events were frowned upon by the respective High Commands and as the intensity of war and list of casualties grew, such memories faded away in following years. But for one brief moment, amidst all the horrors of war, there was a moment of peace. And perhaps that’s something we can cling to now, as in spite of all the violence that still afflicts our world today, we celebrate the birth of Jesus, the ‘Prince of Peace’. 

Let us pray; 

Heavenly Father,

Your offer your Son to a world still suffering from the ravages of war; as we prepare to share presents on this Christmas day, may we not forget your most precious gift, the promise of the Prince of Peace.

We ask this in Christ’s name, Amen.