CHRISTMAS AT THE HANOI HILTON
NOTE FROM BARNEY: Going through the holiday season has been difficult, but filled with so many blessings. Christmas was HUGE to Linda, and the memories are strong and sweet. Recently, my eleven-year-old granddaughter, Olive, came over and helped me decorate the house. I was so blessed! God is so good! Please pray in this season for those of us who have lost loved ones.
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Captain Eugene McDaniel spent six years in the infamous Hanoi Hilton, a brutal prison camp in Vietnam. Yet he experienced moments of pure joy. In his book Scars and Stripes, he described the prisoners’ Christmas celebrations. Each year, the fifty-seven men in the compound organized a program for Christmas week. Someone shared a Christmas miracle story. Another told the story of Ebenezer Scrooge from A Christmas Carol. Some men conducted Christmas plays. They even had a choir, and on Christmas Eve, McDaniel delivered a message.
For a Christmas tree, prisoners fashioned their olive-green socks into the shape of a tree and decorated it with bits of paper. On Christmas morning, prisoners distributed gifts. A man who didn’t smoke gave cigarettes to one who did. The smoker shared candy with a third man.
McDaniel writes, “I couldn’t express the beauty of those Christmases, the sharing of the little things we had … and to see each man’s eyes light up, the smile come on his face … the profound simplicity which made it so beautiful. I don’t know of any other Christmases that have meant more to me.”[1]
While others spent thousands of dollars on gifts, these men battled starvation. Maybe we’re missing something. Whether it’s Christmas Day, New Year’s Day, or Arbor Day, our joy has nothing to do with what we have or don’t have. Mary and Joseph had next to nothing as they lay exhausted in that stable. But I guarantee no one on earth had more joy that night than that mother, father, and child.
Languishing in a Roman prison, Paul wrote, “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation” (Philippians 4:11–12). What’s the secret Paul spoke of? He simply chose joy over victimhood. He thanked God for his blessings and praised him for his goodness—even in prison.
I have a long way to go to catch up with Paul, but in this difficult season of life, I can truthfully say, like Eugene McDaniel, I experience pure joy during intense sorrow. It’s not easy, but we can choose joy as Eugene McDaniel and his fellow prisoners proved decades ago.
Principle: Joy has nothing to do with what we have or don’t have physically.
Ponder:
When have you discovered real joy during the holidays, which had nothing to do with material things?
How can you make Christmas simpler but more blessed this year?
Pursue: For a deeper dive, study Philippians 4:10–19.
Prayer: Lord, thank you for inspiring stories such Eugene McDaniel’s. Help me appreciate the profound depth of choosing joy during this season.
Taken from The Perfect Gift, Copyright © 2024 by Barney Cargile. Used by permission of Our Daily Bread Publishing®, P.O Box 3566, Grand Rapids, MI 49501. All rights reserved. Further distribution is prohibited without written permission from Our Daily Bread Publishing at permissionsdept@odb.org
You can purchase my books Thriving in Quarantine and Thriving in Troubled Times are on Amazon. They make great gifts! Here are the links: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BGDW2NV
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08P3RYM5R/ref=cm_sw_r_em_api_VrXVFbVVZNEVA