Belleau Wood

This morning, while waiting to pick up my precious two year old from preschool, I sat in the car putting stamps on the 140 Christmas cards that needed to be sent out today.  This song came on the radio, one that I know well but have not heard in a very long time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuD-hwDa8YQ

Its called Belleau Wood, by Garth Brooks.  Take a listen.  Its about the Christmas truce during the war in 1914.  Its the story of the German soldiers and American soldiers, enemies in the war, laying down their guns and singing Silent Night together in the trenches.  It is an emotional song on a good day.

Today, I listened to it while watching my baby girl's blonde pony tail bounce up and down on the playground, as she ran and jumped and laughed and played with her little friends. And I cried my eyes out, thinking of the precious lives lost here in Newtown this week.

The final lines crushed me:  "Heaven's not beyond the clouds, its just beyond the fear."

Shock seems to be wearing off here.  Everyone I know was a wreck today.  We all cried far more today than we have any other day since Friday.  I think the reality of what happened here is finally setting in, and its life-shattering.  So tonight I'm praying that the fear of every baby and every child and every parent and every teacher and every person in Newtown and in CT and in our country and in our world would be eased by the peace of the Lord this Christmas season. And that somehow we may find a way to stop shooting and call a truce, not just for Christmas day, but for every day.

The babies with the blonde ponytails need us to figure it out.