I Heard The Bells

Lately I've had one of the most profound and beautiful poems stuck in my head because of this season. Constantly phrases sneak into my thoughts while i am sitting alone quietly, and touch my heart in such a way that this song has never before so done. This year, a song that I have known most of my life has taken a new shape, meaning, and form to me...and maybe that's because I see its possible potential role in my life. I see how it can describe relate to our modern day, even though it was written in 1864.
"I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" was composd on december 25, 1864 by Henry Longfellow. During this time, the United States was still months away from Lee's surrender to General Grant, ending the Civil War. The country was in chaos. Brother against brother. And if just knowing that this was going on somewhere in the world wasn't enough to burden a man's heart, Henry Longfellow had a tragic life in many aspects that, when I was curious enough to look up and read about, has touched my heart and has created, forever, a ringing in my head of his lyrics.
Soon after the outbreak of the Civil War, his son was crippled due to war wounds and eventually led to his death. This grieved him. And if that were not enough, a fire broke out in the library of their house, catching his wife, Frances, on fire. He used a small throw rug to try and smother the flames, but its size was inadequate. When that didn't work, he threw his own self around her to try and smother the flames, severely burning his face, hands, and arms. His wife died the next morning, and he was permanently scarred physically and emotionally.
In his journal entry on the first Christmas after Frances death, he wrote, "How inexpressibly sad are all holidays. I can make no record of these days. Better to leave them wrapped in silence. Perhaps someday God will give me peace."
The lyrics of his poem, "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" have stuck with me these last few weeks, especially when I read the newspaper. "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.'"
There is so much hate and opposition and sadness in our world, it seems at times that there is no hope for us as a society, or maybe even as individuals. It's scary to walk outside because you never know what is going to happen to you. I seems that nothing is sacred anymore. Nothing is respected. Nothing is safe. And how sad it is that our world seems more unified by a hate than love.
But there is always hope. That is what we are celebrating this season. HOPE. There is always that. Hope is something greater. Hope, because love itself came down to take upon Him our sins and die for us so that we may live again. So that we will be able to be saved. Hope in God. Hope in our fellow man.
And so I leave you with the final verse that he wrote, and I hope that no matter what tragedies you encounter in life that the words of Henry Longfellow stick in your mind.
"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.'"