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Christmas, 1941
It was only 18 days after the infamous event of December 7, 1941. As a one-year-old toddling around the Christmas tree in my parents' house down on La Vista Drive in Dallas, I was oblivious to the worst attack on U.S. soil since the British burned down the White House during the War of 1812. And over the next 4 years, as that horrendous war that was initiated by the Pearl Harbor attack played itself out, I was equally oblivious to all the momentous events that were a part of it. The massacre of millions of Jews, the Normandy invasion, the Battle of the Bulge, and the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by atom bombs. Only later as I listened to the stories of my three Flanery uncles-all of whom were in that war-did I begin to dimly perceive what war was like. Then, as an adult, I read Walter Lord's unforgettable book Day of Infamy, and the perceptions grew deeper and stronger, augmented by the various movies about WWII like Tora! Tora! Tora!

Today my one-year-old granddaughter, Susanna, toddlesaround her parents' Christmas tree just like I did exactly 60 years earlier. Like I was then, she is unaware of the incredible events of September 11 (another "day of infamy") and those following. And even as my heartstrings are pulled by all her wonderful ways (I'm tempted to list them here, but have been admonished to spare the reader), I can't keep out those thoughts in the back of my mind: will her early childhood years be like mine, growing up unknowing of horrendous events as they unfold in the war on terrorism that is to come? Or even worse, will she somehow become a victim of the terrorists' malevolence?

Isaiah was no stranger to war. The early chapters of his prophecy are filled with words about war. For example, here are some verses from chapter 8:

Raise the war cry, you nations, and be shattered!
Listen, all you distant lands.
Prepare for battle, and be shattered!
Prepare for battle, and be shattered!
Devise your strategy, but it will be thwarted;
Propose your plan, but it will not stand, for God is with us. (8:9-10)

Surprisingly, in the midst of the prophecies about invasion, conquest and destruction come words about children, that is, about A Child. Chapter 7 prophecies that the virgin will give birth to a child named Emmanuel, and then in chapter 9 we find war and the child mentioned in the same breath:

For as in the day of Midian's defeat you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor.
Every warrior's boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom,
Establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this. (9:4-7)

It's almost as though in Isaiah's mind, war and infants go together. Indeed, the solution to war is the Child, who as the Prince of Peace will bring an end to war so that the warrior's boot can be burned up to be used no more.

So how can I use this truth from the pen of the prophet to help arrest my grandfatherly fears about the future for my precious granddaughters (did I mention that Susanna now has an equally stunning younger sister named Lydia?)? First, Isaiah reassures me that in the long term, everything will be all right. There will be no end to the peace that the Child will bring as he rules with justice and righteousness. Second, in the intermediate term, the prophet makes a prediction that I know has come true in human history. Jesus of Nazareth is the prophesied Child who was born a baby in Bethlehem of flesh and blood parents, who grew up and was and is "the wonderful counselor, the mighty God." His counsel and mighty providence are given to me and my family under the terms of his covenant faithfulness in peace or in war. Finally, regarding the short term, the prophet in later chapters (52 & 53) tells me that my own transgressions-even the sins I've committed this very day-have been borne by that Child that grew up to be the Suffering Servant. This gospel promise is for "me and my children" (Acts 2:39).

C. S. Lewis, that most quotable of Christian authors, lived and wrote during World War II. In an essay entitled "Learning in War-time" delivered to a group of college students in England, he comments that either in peace or in war we all have a 100% chance of dying. Indeed, he notes, dying in war is likely to be a less painful way to die than through a wasting disease like cancer. Then he goes on to say:

Yet war does do something to death. It forces us to remember it. The only reason why the cancer at sixty or the paralysis at seventy-five do not bother us is that we forget them. War makes death real to us, and that would have been regarded as one of its blessings by most of the great Christians of the past. They thought it good for us to be always aware of our mortality. I am inclined to think they were right. All animal life in us, all schemes of happiness that are centered in this world, were always doomed to a final frustration. In ordinary times only a wise man can realize it. Now the stupidest of us knows. We see unmistakably the sort of universe in which we have all along been living, and we must come to terms with it. If we had foolish un-Christian hopes about human culture, they are now shattered. If we thought we were building up a heaven on earth, if we looked for something that would turn the present world from a place of pilgrimage into a permanent city satisfying the soul of man, we are disillusioned, and not a moment too soon. (C. S. Lewis, "Learning in War-time", The Weight of Glory and other Addresses, Touchstone:1980, p. 51ff.)

According to Lewis it comes back to how we view the "ultimate tragedy," our death and the death of those we love. If we view it as the world does-as the ultimate loss-then we would be right to fear it and even more so in wartime. But if we view it as the prophet and his fellow Biblical authors do, we realize that what appears to be the ultimate loss is the ultimate gain: "for me to live is Christ, to die is gain." In His death is our resurrection to unspeakable glory, and that of our loved ones whom He has redeemed.

And so in this spirit of prophetic hope, especially in wartime, I wish you and yours, "Merry Christmas, 2001."

Other Pop Writings:
Caddo! (5/2002)
Raising Cane (4/2002)
Ask Anything? (3/2002)
The Race (3/2002)
The Hill (3/2002)
A Remembrance (3/2002)
Christmas, 1941 (12/2001)
Endo II (3/2001)
Endo I (10/2000)
The Course (5/2000)
The Rope (1/2000)

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