I don’t think that there could be any song that is more appropriate this Christmas than “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.” For the seventh Christmas in a row, our nation, and the world, is wrapped into a struggle that has forever changed our lives.The fight against the Islamic Jihad, had spread from the Middle East, Somalia, and Indonesia, to New York, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere. As our nation reacted to the atrocities at home, we mobilized for war against Al Queda, and those who preached the destruction of the west.
Our soldiers began fighting back the enemies of the free world. Our allies were attacked in Spain, Britain, and more. With courage, we stayed in the fight, knowing that a better world could be made, if we prevail.
After seven Christmases of war, many have given up hope. They have proclaimed that the Wrong have indeed prevailed. Hope has given way to despair. It is easy to believe that there will never be peace again.
It was nearly a century and a half ago that a man, by the name of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, felt as many feel today. He began to write a poem, that would describe his journey from despair to hope.
To understand the context of this poem, you must understand the time and situation of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He was a man with scars on the inside and out.
Just three years before, he had tried to rescue his wife as she burned alive after her dress caught fire by a candle. His face was so charred from the fire, that he could not attend his own wife’s funeral.
At the time of this writing, Longfellow’s own nation was in the midst of the greatest struggle it had ever faced. The civil war was in it’s darkest moments and the states were anything but united. Men fought and killed their own brothers and fathers. The tensions between the north and the south created an emotional chasm that appeared as though it would never be bridged.
Longfellow lived at a time when peace may have been desired, but peace was not visible, not even on the horizon.
In the midst of this dark time, Longfellow cried out in his writing:
“There is no peace on earth, for hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, good will to men. “
This was in the context of a struggle that looked as though it had no end. Many believed that wrong would prevail, and the the Right would fail. They only saw death in the future. Though they believed their cause was just, they had no faith, because they could see no victory.
Longfellow was then reminded that there is hope. With a burst of the bells he was reminded that
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep; The wrong shall fail, the right prevail With peace on earth, good will to men.”
With those timeless words, came encouragement, not just to Longfellow or the people of his time, but to the entire human race. We are reminded that there will be struggles and we will face circumstances that we see as all but lost, but in the end, the Right will prevail.
Take heart, our struggles here at home, and those of insurmountable proportions around the world, will be victorious. The wrong shall fail, the right will prevail, with the result being peace on earth and good will toward all men!
Merry Christmas!
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.â€
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.â€
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for that Christmas gift for that guy or girl who has everything.
