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.
