We sang “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” yesterday. This has been my favorite Christmas song for many years now, but yesterday held new meaning.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow had penned the words on Christmas day in 1863. As the country was being ripped apart in the very bloody Civil War, Longfellow was nursing his son back to health.
And in despair I bowed my head:
“There is no peace on earth,” I said,
“For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.”
In today’s world, it’s often hard to see good things ridiculed, and the hate that mocks our peace. We might wonder if God still hears us. I know that things can seem so much darker now, but trials have always been part of this mortal existence. As Longfellow grieved his wife, worried for his son, and saw our countrymen fighting each other, how lost he must have felt.
But those Christmas Bells were his answer:
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth he sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to men.”
We know the end of the story. God will prevail.
Merry Christmas!
Family Life Education 