CHRISTMAS BELLS

     I happened to be in town shopping over the noon hour one day last week.  I am not sure if the bells I heard tolling ring out every day at noon or if it is just through the Christmas holidays, but it was nice to hear them chime out a Christmas tune.  I savored the short melody as I went about my business thinking what a nice touch it was.

     Later in the week I came across a blog written by Justin Taylor from the Gospel Coalition about the Christmas song “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” and found it quite interesting.

     The song was written on Christmas Day in 1863 right in the midst of the Civil War by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  It was a horrible time in history.  It was a horrible war that took an estimated 640,000 lives.  It was brutal and bloody.  Longfellow’s own son had just come home severely wounded.

     According to Taylor’s article that was not the only misery that Longfellow suffered as he listened to the Christmas bells tolling out a seemingly mocking message of peace.  Less than two years earlier he had lost his wife when her dress caught fire and she died from burns leaving him with six children to raise.

     I imagine he sat listening to those mocking bells in a state of brokenness and grief.  All around him was brokenness.  The nation was broken.  He was broken.  His wounded son was broken.  His very heart was broken.  And yet, those resolute bells continued to chime out that timeless message of peace.  Were they laughing at him? Were they making fun of him?

     We live in a broken world and each of us deals with some form of brokenness, but the peace of which the Christmas bells speak is real.  Our Prince of Peace is real.  The Healer of brokenness is real.

Isaiah 9:6 says:

                 For to us a child is born,

                 to us a son is given,

                 and the government will be on his shoulders.
                                     And he will be called
                 Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
                 Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Here are the original words penned that long ago Christmas Day.  They differ a little from the words in our hymnal.

Christmas Bells

By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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 Christiandom

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!”

   I pray that this wonderful Prince of Peace who came to earth to bring you and me the gift of redemption will find an open door to your heart.  He is not found by knowledge, He is found by a searching heart.

  I think in the midst of suffering and the despair of war Longfellow found his way to that place of real peace.  I pray that any and all that read these words will find that wonderful Prince of Peace.  Jesus is His name.