Bringing news of great joy for all
I love this story so much. Told to me by the friend who experienced it firsthand. I've written it before, but it's one for every Christmas season. Good will between two sides at war.
Carolyn was living in Iran with her husband and young daughter during World War II — bringing the good news of Christ to the Iranian people, whom she loved. The country experienced famine and it was no longer a secure haven — the women and children were sent back to their home country, the United States.
The war was full on. An ocean crossing wasn't the safest choice, either. She and 6-year-old Joann ended up on the British troopship H.M.T. Mauretania, traversing the Atlantic along with others in their party. The ship sometimes performed zigzag maneuvers to evade enemy submarines.
Aboard the ship were German prisoners of war. It was Christmas Eve. The American group understood what a lonely, tense time this must be for these men. They received permission from the ship's captain to sing Christmas carols to the prisoners.
They lined up in the corridor and began to sing — opening with “Silent Night” due to the carol's close tie with Germany. There was loud thumping as the men stampeded from their bunks and crowded around the small windows, tears streaming down their faces. Together they all sang song after song, each in their own language.
On Christmas Day the women and children headed to the dining room for dinner where they got the surprise of their life. Displayed on a table at the entrance was a large handcrafted Nativity — a gift from the prisoners of war.
They had used scraps from their Red Cross Christmas parcels — even constructing a star from the foil wrappings around their candy bars. They had found a way to say thank you to these compassionate women who had cared to make Christmas Eve something more than a long night at sea in hostile territory.
Carolyn and the others arrived safely in the United States. The original vessel on which they began their journey — before transferring to the Mauretania — was lost at sea, never heard from again.
It doesn't seem German POWs and American moms and kids would have much to connect them — but the message sung in that night sky announcing the Bethlehem birth is plain spoken, “Behold, I bring you good news of great joy, which will be for all the people … a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
War and hate and destruction fell away on a 1940s Christmas Eve — fell so far it caught the song of exceeding joy still ringing for all the world. Emmanuel — God with us — born in a simple bed of straw.