I went to a private school as a child. It was small…the year I graduated there were only 54 students in the entire school…2 in my graduating class…myself, and Tommy Hicks.

The 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grades were all in the same classroom.

It was the homeroom of Mrs. Hopewell, our math teacher (we always called her the H-Bomb). She was a massive woman…not fat, mind you, but, tall…towering…big boned…almost masculine…and, good grief, was she intimidating! I don’t think there was a person in school who wasn’t terrified of her, and that included the teachers.

I can’t think back on those years without smiling every time I think about her…she loved Christmas….and she loved the song, Silent Night.

She would have us sing it at the end of the school day during the holidays. We would sing the first stanza, and then we would hum the next. She openly wept. It always amazed me that this giant, ‘hard’, feared woman would become mush at the sound of all those innocent voices…the gentle humming of that wonderful song. It, actually, brings a tear to my eye as I think about it now…

The origin of the Christmas carol we know as Silent Night was a poem that was written in 1816 by an Austrian priest called Joseph Mohr.

Throughout the world, “Silent Night”, which has been translated into more than 200 languages, is an anchor for Christmas celebrations. Its lullaby-like melody and simple message of heavenly peace can be heard from small town street corners in mid-America to magnificent cathedrals in Europe and from outdoor candlelight concerts in Australia to palm thatched huts in northern Peru.

The song was sung simultaneously in English and German by troops during the Christmas truce of 1914, as it was one of the few carols that soldiers on both sides of the front line knew. The event is depicted in the 1997 Garth Brooks song “Belleau Wood”.

“Belleau Wood”

Oh, the snowflakes fell in silence

Over Belleau Wood that night

For a Christmas truce had been declared

By both sides of the fight

As we lay there in our trenches

The silence broke in two

By a German soldier singing

A song that we all knew

Though I did not know the language

The song was “Silent Night”

Then I heard my buddy whisper,

“All is calm and all is bright”

Then the fear and doubt surrounded me

‘Cause I’d die if I was wrong

But I stood up in my trench

And I began to sing along

Then across the frozen battlefield

Another’s voice joined in

Until one by one each man became

A singer of the hymn

Then I thought that I was dreaming

For right there in my sight

Stood the German soldier

‘Neath the falling flakes of white

And he raised his hand and smiled at me

As if he seemed to say

Here’s hoping we both live

To see us find a better way

Then the devil’s clock struck midnight

And the skies lit up again

And the battlefield where heaven stood

Was blown to hell again

But for just one fleeting moment

The answer seemed so clear

Heaven’s not beyond the clouds

It’s just beyond the fear

No, heaven’s not beyond the clouds

It’s for us to find it here

Silent Night is the most famous Christmas carol of all time, and it happens to be my all time favorite.

Please remember to pray for our troops, and their loved ones, this Holiday season, and throughout the year…May they all come home soon.