(This editorial column appeared in the Tribune in 2005. The hope expressed in it holds the same this year. - Editor)

In 1943, Bing Crosby sang, "I'll be home for Christmas …"

It was a heart-warming but heart-wrenching thought for homesick GI Joes and GI Janes. It wasn't likely they'd be home soon. But they could dream it would be so as soon as Uncle Sam no longer had need of them in the service.

Christmas is in the hearts of their great-grandsons and great-granddaughters who are in Iraq today - and Afghanistan and in military posts and bases, on ships and in submarines; they are trudging through the snow today, on patrol, or they are flying. "I'll be home for Christmas … if only in my dreams."

Maybe by next Christmas many of them will be stateside and home.

Long ago, a man and a very young woman were compelled to leave their hometown and make an arduous journey "in the cold midwinter." They lived in a country under military occupation. They were required to report to the ancestral town of the head of the household (yes, it was the man) to be counted in a census.

They would have passed by the watchful eyes of soldiers on their way to Bethlehem, previously a hospitable place named the "house of bread."

It was in a conflict zone then. It is now.

Even in a place under military occupation, life happens. The young woman gave birth. Her son's name eventually became known far and wide. "Yeshua" ("the One who Saves") - Jesus - was the prototypical commoner, yet he was accorded a title of nobility, "the Prince of Peace."

He was a Jew. And he transcended categorization. He came to be revered by Christians. He came to be regarded as a holy person by Muslims. A saintly Hindu, Mohandas Gandhi, modeled his personal and political life on the example of Jesus.

His followers have regarded him as Immanuel, meaning, "God (is) with us."

People celebrating Christmas at home today yearn to have a day of peace and joy, a gift of the divine being with them.

It would be better if no one in Bismarck and Mandan or elsewhere were homeless on Christmas - or any other day and night.

Those of us who have loved ones traveling or are ourselves on the road won't entirely rest easy until everyone is home safe.

The same goes for our loved ones and all the others in military service. We won't rest easy until they're home safe.

We hope they're safe right now.

Some year, they'll be home for Christmas. Pray it's sooner than later. The Prince of Peace would want it so for them. And not only in our dreams.