No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.
- Joshua 1:5
The bolts of your gates will be iron and bronze,
and your strength will equal your days.
- Deuteronomy 33:25
So do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
- Isaiah 41:10
When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.
- Isaiah 43:2
Even to your old age and gray hairs
I am he, I am he who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you;
I will sustain you and I will rescue you.
- Isaiah 46:4
“On Christmas Eve 1898, many of these soldiers were encamped in the hills above Havana. It was a tropical, balmy night, and the thoughts of the men were of home. Some were from the North and others from the South, and the tensions of slavery, segregation, and the Civil War were still raw. One middle-aged man was sitting in front of his tent-Lieutenant Colonel Curtis Guild Jr., the former governor of Massachusetts. He was a close friend of Roosevelt and had been appointed inspector-general of Havana during the occupation. As he sat talking to a fellow officer their thoughts were mellow, and they spoke of what their families were doing back home. When the midnight hour came, a sentinel cried out, ‘Twelve o’clock, and all’s well.’
“At that moment a beautiful voice arose from a nearby tent-a clear, booming baritone-singing the hymn ‘How Firm a Foundation.’ In those days this hymn was often sung to the tune Adeste Fideles, the melody for the Christmas carol ‘O Come, All Ye Faithful.’
“This is a hymn of seven verses, and it was well-known and very popular, especially since it was Theodore Roosevelt’s favorite hymn. More and more voices joined in with every verse-the Forty-ninth regiment of Iowa, the Sixth of Missouri, the Fourth of Virginia, soldiers from both north and south of the Mason-Dixon line-an entire army, united far from home in the first moments of Christmas 1898.”
- Robert J. Morgan, 100 Bible Verses That Made America
In my recent trip to visit the grandchildren, the oldest of them went with me to Nashville, to sell used books and games. One of the books that I purchased in return was 100 Bible Verses That Made America by Robert J. Morgan. As we approach the 250th anniversary of the birth of the USA, I thought I would do a condensed mini-series on some of these verses, four posts per week for a few weeks – maybe not all 100 verses.
The author talks about the well-documented unofficial truce in 1914 during World War I. Both sides, allied forces and Germans, sang Christmas Carols and shared what meager provisions they had. The movie that was made about this event was Joyeux Noël which came out in 2005. Some regions released the movie as Merry Christmas.
But in the author’s story, the two sides in the “conflict” were in the same army. It was not until the Korean Conflict that black and white US soldiers were in the same unit. The Red Ball Express and the Tuskegee Airmen were heroes of World War II, and the units were comprised of black soldiers. They did their part in winning the war, and part of their fight was being recognized for their contribution.
In 1898, the Spanish American War was over. U.S. troops were left in Cuba to maintain peace. Were they occupation forces or were they enacting martial law?
But it was an uneasy feeling among those in the camp that they were working alongside soldiers, whose parents had been slaves a mere 35 years before. All the soldiers had grown up with stories from their elders about the war, slavery, and the other events that had occurred before they were born.
A lone soldier, feeling blue because he was in Cuba and not at home, began to sing. Before long, the entire camp was singing.
Some of my fondest memories of my three years in Germany were during the Christmas holidays.
One Christmas, I think the first, there were three choirs that sang Christmas music. There was the main Karlsruhe church choir (in the family housing area), a nearby German church choir, and our little choir from Gerszewski Barracks in nearby Knielingen. The main church choir sang in English. The German choir sang in German. Everything was angelic. Then our little choir, maybe ten women and six men, sang a familiar Christmas Carol in English. Then, we sang Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming in German. In German, it is entitled, is Es Ist Ein Ros Ensprungen.
If you are not familiar with the song, there is no time signature. One measure might have four quarter notes, the next two or three, then the next six. Then the arrangement that the LTC’s wife selected had all four parts going in different directions at the same time. Yet, we started together and ended together, in harmony. The arrangement was something similar to the video below. This is sung by the Gesauldo Six, at Ely Cathedral.
Es ist ein Ros entsprungen,
Aus einer Wurzel zart.
Wie uns die Alten sungen,
Aus Jesse kam die Art
Und hat ein Blümlein bracht,
Mitten im kalten Winter,
Wohl zu der halben Nacht.
Das Röslein, das ich meine,
Davon Jesaias sagt:
Maria ist’s, die Reine,
Die uns das Blümlein bracht.
Aus Gottes ew’gen Rat
Hat sie ein Kind geboren
Wohl zu der halben Nacht.
Das Blümelein, so kleine,
Das duftet uns so süß;
Mit seinem hellen Scheine
Vertreibt’s die Finsternis.
Wahr’r Mensch und wahrer Gott!
Hilft uns aus allem Leide,
Rettet von Sünd’ und Tod.
- Author unknown (prior to 1580, earliest known printed lyrics), music by Michael Praetorius
When our little choir ended, there was silence for a moment before the church erupted with applause. The LTC’s wife said that the pause was better than the applause. It meant they were so enraptured that they did not want it to end. The Germans came up to us and asked if we were really Germans in disguise. The pronunciation was perfect, not just our weaving through the timing and hitting the right notes.
Somehow, in sharing some refreshments afterwards with the Germans who had come for the “caroling,” I felt at home there.
My wife had good friends that she met in El Paso, TX when she was a teenager. The husband in the family was a sergeant in the German Army, specializing in rockets. He was taking classes at nearby Fort Bliss, and somehow he found my wife’s family who liked singing German music.
Now, I was stationed in Germany, and he had finished his schooling, heading the science department at the local high school level. We had visited over the three years, but our last year in Germany, he insisted that we come visit a day or two before Christmas, at least until noon Christmas Day. They lived in Bavaria. It was only a couple of hours drive. Our boys were three and a half and six months.
We rode a sled down the sledding hill. We listened the carolers at night. And we enjoyed each other’s company. We visited Celtic Mounds in a nearby deciduous pine forest. Yes, there are pine trees that lose their needles in winter.
But the odd thing was that they had this huge real tree in their living room, but no decorations at all, no presents under the tree.
Then on Christmas Eve, while the wife was preparing the meal (Steak tartare as the main dish – raw finely chopped beef steak, no grinder allowed), my wife helped where she could. Their children kept our children busy. I was asked to go into the cellar and help our host with the wine selections.
And then after the wonderful meal, we went into their living room. The Christmas tree was fully decorated. There were presents under the tree. We had not seen our hosts leave the kitchen except when the host and I went to the cellar.
They explained, in typical Martin Luther fashion, that the Kris kind (Christ Child) had delivered the gifts. All good gifts come from God. Unless the neighbors snuck in while we were eating, I cannot explain it. But our celebrating Christmas in a very German way was my fondest memory of those three years, outside some pleasure in my work.
But people are different. Some people are out on Volk’s marches every weekend enjoying mingling with the natives. Or as I laughingly found out, not so native. I was on one Volks March and this brisk walking hiker passed us. He spoke in German to us. We returned the greeting. For some reason, he slowed down. And as we were both struggling to find the right words in German to continue the conversation, he found out we were Americans, stationed at Karlsruhe, Germany, not far south of where we were. He was from York, England. Neither of us knew that much German, but since we had dressed as the Germans did, nothing gave us away. We doubled over laughing at how we had tried to speak German in deference to the other, just to learn we both spoke English as our first language.
But then there were others, called “holers.” They stayed in their apartment or in the barracks and never ventured out. They were surrounded by other Americans. They only left to go to the PX, barber shop (at the PX), movie theater (showing American movies – from six months ago), and the commissary for their groceries (American groceries). They made their hole, and they lived in their hole until their tour of duty was over.
Thank you, Lord, for giving me a wife who was adventurous, who had lived in the Netherlands as a child and had relatives there, and who never met a stranger – just strange people who she wanted to be friends with.
But pray for our troops overseas. Whether they are in harm’s way or not, they are far from home. This post comes out in enough time that you might be able to put together a care package and send it to them. It sometimes takes a month or more, or it did fifty years ago.
If you know no one, pray for one rank each day, all the branches until even the Generals get their turn.
Note from the author: This one took me down a branch of memory lane that I had not been on for some time. I thank God for the friends that I had for those three years. And I miss you all. Now, if you will excuse me, my chronic dry eye condition has been cured for the moment. I need to look for some tissues.
Soli Deo Gloria. Only to God be the Glory.
Leave a Reply