During this season, my wife, Robbie, and I have enjoyed keeping our XM Radio tuned to Channel 36 and listening to traditional Christmas music. Several times each day, we hear the familiar song, "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day." Each time I read the bleak headlines of economic downturn and human conflict, I remember the circumstances during which Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote the poem which gave words to the song.
Longfellow's wife had died in a tragic fire in 1861. In his grief, he saw his beloved nation torn apart by the horrors of civil war. Then, in 1863 he learned that his son had been critically wounded while fighting with the Army of the Potomac. It seemed that things could not have been worse when the poet took his pen in hand on Christmas Day. However, words that began in despair ended in hope.
On this Christmas Day, we will be well served by turning from the "disaster sells" mentality that drives today's media and remembering that "God is not dead, nor doth he sleep! The wrong shall fail, the right prevail, with peace on earth, good will to men!"
When Paul wrote his letter to the church in Rome, he was addressing believers who would be baffled by what American Christians are calling "difficult times." Knowing that they faced persecution beyond our ability to imagine, he was inspired to pen his own "God is not dead" message of hope:
31 What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He did not even spare His own Son, but offered Him up for us all;
how will He not also with Him grant us everything? 33 Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect? God is the One who justifies. 34 Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the One who died, but even more, has been raised;
He also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us. 35 Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or anguish or persecution
or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: Because of You we are being put to death all day long; we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered. 37 No, in all these things we are more than victorious through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life,
nor angels nor rulers,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will have the power to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord! (Romans 8:31-39, HCSB)
As you read Longfellow's poem in its entirety, join me in counting blessings, celebrating the birth of Hope, and remembering suffering believers in such places as Sudan and Zimbabwe.
I heard the bells
on Christmas Day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to
men!
And thought how, as the day had
come
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to
men!
Till, ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to
day,
A voice, a chime,
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good will to
men!
Then from each black, accursed
mouth
The cannon thundered in the
South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good will to
men!
It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good will to
men!
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."
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!"
