So it was that on this night, General Washington led his army on a surprise attack against Hessian mercenaries stationed at Trenton. His men were underfed, ill equipped and many were gravely ill, yet onward they marched. The merciless weather was both a blessing and a curse. While it sapped the strength of Washington's men, who pressed on when most others would have given up, it also enticed the Hessian guards to stay inside where it was warm, and it hid the tell-tale signs of the approaching American forces...the trail of blood left by the American soldiers whose shoes had worn out and had been replaced by burlap sacks, the army being unable to afford to purchase more shoes.

The three-pronged attack had been carefully coordinated with secrecy being absolute.Washington and his group of men would cross the Delaware River in silence, meeting up with the other two armies crossing at Bordentown and Trenton Ferry/Assunpink Creek, thereby surrounding the Hessians, where they hoped to win the battle with minimal loss of life. On the banks of the Delaware, Washington prepared his men for battle, which was a daunting task at best. Yet before they could face the British, they were forced to deal with freezing rain, then hail and then snow. As Washington crossed the Delaware, he had no way of knowing that the other two armies had been forced to turn back because of the icy conditions. He would not realize until the time came to attack that his plans had gone badly awry, and that he and his men were alone.

The attack was supposed to have commenced before dawn, but conditions slowed the nine mile trek to Trenton, and the sun had already begun to scatter light like a million diamonds across the snow-laden landscape. Washington now saw that his carefully-laid plans had fallen apart, but he was determined, as the watchword of the night declared, that there would be "Victory or Death". Washington would march on to Trenton.

The Hessians, having enjoyed a warm Christmas dinner and a good night's sleep, thinking the weather too burdensome for the Americans to overcome, were caught off guard despite the many failures in Washington's plan throughout the night. Coming out of the shop for fresh air, the Hessian commander was fired upon by an American soldier, and within moments the battle raged, the Hessians pouring out to engage the vagabond colonial upstarts. On this day though, Almighty God would smile upon that rag-tag army, and the Americans would defeat the Hessians while suffering only two fatalities of their own. This victory would prove to be a reviving elixir to the American cause, as thousands more men would sign up to serve under the victorious Washington, and within a few short years the world's greatest military would be vanquished, and a fledgling country, full of hope, would take root and become a beacon to the world.

I think it no coincidence that the victory that would turn the tide toward freedom should take place on Christmas Day. For that is the day that we celebrate the birth of the savior, Jesus Christ, who came to earth to vanquish the armies of Satan. Through his supernal sacrifice for each of us, he would assure mankind of victory over death and the grave. Yet like our nation almost two millenia later, Jesus Christ would be born of humble circumstances. With no comprension by the gathered multitudes of the majestic nature of the nearby birth of this royal child, the Lord would be born in a stable, wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger to rest. Few realized then that this young boy would toil in humble anonymity for three decades, then announce to the world that the coming of the Son of God had arrived, and for the next three years humbly but powerfully preach His message to the Jews and then the Gentiles.

So it is that on Christmas Day, we have ample cause, no matter whether we are rich or poor, black or white or brown, no matter our individual struggles and circumstances, to celebrate the birth of our Savior and of our country, the two most powerful forces in the history of the world to bring hope and salvation to the family of man. Merry Christmas!