Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. – Luke 2:14, KJV

Today, Christmas Day 2014, theaters across America will debut the movie Unbroken. The film follows the life of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic Athlete, World War 2 prisoner of war, and Christian evangelist who died earlier this year at the age of 97. Until just a few days ago, I had never heard of Zamperini, so I looked on the Web to learn a little bit more about him. According to Wikipedia:

In a televised interview on the Christian Broadcasting Network in 2003, Zamperini related that after the war he’d had nightmares about strangling his former captors, and began drinking heavily, trying to forget his experiences as a POW. His wife Cynthia attended one of the evangelical crusades led by Billy Graham in Los Angeles, and became a born-again Christian. In 1949, at the encouragement of his wife and her Christian friends, Zamperini reluctantly agreed to attend a crusade. Reminded by Graham’s preaching of his prayers during his time on the life raft and imprisonment, Zamperini also recommitted his life to Christianity. Following this he forgave his captors, and his nightmares ceased.

Later Graham helped Zamperini launch a new career as a Christian inspirational speaker. One of his recurring themes was “forgiveness”, and he visited many of the guards from his POW days to let them know that he had forgiven them. This included an October 1950 visit to Sugamo Prison in Tokyo, where many war criminals were imprisoned, in which Zamperini embraced those who stepped forward to acknowledge that they recognized him, and expressed forgiveness to them. Zamperini told CBN that some became Christians in response.

Though many lessons can be gleaned from Zamperini’s life, perhaps the most important one is this: peace between God and our fellow man is the greatest gift of all. Jesus Christ came to bring mortal enemies together, but the enemies He came to reconcile were not warring men. That’s just a side benefit. The enemies He came to reconcile were men and women, boys and girls who were, are, and will be warring against God. But:

…God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. – John 3:16, KJV

and through His wonderful gift, we can have peace between God and mankind. When we have His peace, then we can experience peace with other people, making miracles like Zamperini’s reconciliation with his captors an everyday event.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!