Here’s a song I listen to every Christmas Eve. When I went to church today, for the first time in about a year, a solo guitar player sang the song. It has even more meaning to me now, then it did when I first heard it…

Here are the lyrics, you can listen to it here as an MP3 file:

Belleau Wood

by Joe Henry & Garth Brooks

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 down 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 Here.