But then I check the latest headlines and find that the ugly world outside remains ugly. Seven shot dead in an apartment near Fort Worth, Texas...apparently all family...including the shooter. Suicide bomber kills four and injures 17 outside Iraq's interior ministry in Baghdad. More than 35 people were killed in attacks in Nigeria....churches were the target. 20 people attending a funeral ceremony were killed by a suicide bomber in the Takhar province of Afghanistan. Five people died in a morning house fire in Connecticut... including three children. Four people died in a two vehicle crash in Palermo, Maine.
Did these tragedies occur last month..last week? No, these all occurred over the last 24 hours. In the time it took us to awaken, open our Christmas presents, eat our Christmas meals, watch our favorite holiday movies, visit with family, eat some more and get tucked away for another night's sleep... evil and death reared their ugly heads...again.
The year was 1864 and America was in the throes of the Civil War. American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's son Charles, a Union soldier, was severely wounded in battle the year before. Two years prior to that Longfellow had lost his wife Fanny in an tragic, accidental fire. On Christmas Day 1864, he wrote a poem entitled "Christmas Bells." The Bible passage in Luke 2: 8-14 must have been on his mind:
"And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."
Here are five of the seven stanzas Longfellow wrote:
"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.
I thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along th'unbroken song
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.'
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."
"...There is no peace on earth, I said..."
My son and wife are soundly asleep. Safe and healthy in their beds. I know not the agony that Longfellow had experienced, prompting him to write down the words to his poem. I hear the pealing of the bells at Christmas and the sound brings a smile to my face. Longfellow heard the Christmas bells chime and believed that the bells were mocking his tragedy. But by the end of his poem, he acknowledges God's trustworthiness.
Peace on earth. Is this a peace that is a result of an absence of war and violence? Is this a peace that comes due to a life that is void of pain and misery? Do we gain this peace by life's bountiful providence? Is there peace on earth? Maybe the answer to that is too obvious. Is there peace in your heart?
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. Romans 5: 1,2
Peace.
"I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" by Casting Crowns
No comments:
Post a Comment