I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

John 14:27 – Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
 
Song: Casting Crowns – I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day (Peace on Earth)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3fiJFCCqMg
 
“I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” began as a poem written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow on Christmas Day in 1863.  He had lost his wife three years earlier in a housefire that also left his face permanently scarred.  He had also just learned that his son had been wounded in the Civil War.  On a day when we “supposed” to be joyous at Christ’s birth, he was feeling quite the opposite. Being a writer, he began to write his feelings of melancholy as the Christmas Bells began to ring outside his home.  The poem he was writing became a “conversation” between himself and the bells that were chirping out Christmas Carols.  Instead of me trying to describe the words of one of America’s master poets, here is his poem/conversation:
 
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!”
 
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.”
 
Exactly 51 years later, in 1914, British and German troops facing off in the trenches of Belgium at had stopped firing at each other because weather had blocked visibility of the enemy.  In the silence, soldiers could be heard singing Christmas Carols.  It softened the hearts of both sides and it led to them coming together in the No Man’s Land in between the trenches for what would be known as the Christmas Truce of 1914. 

The juxtaposition of these two powerful stories led Casting Crowns to compose their own version of “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” on the 100the anniversary of the Christmas Truce in 2014.  The song video for today is their dramatization of that. 

The hope lodged in the songs of this season is powerful.  It sustains us in dark times and every once in a while, singing these songs tears down walls of grief and conflict that seemed impenetrable.  Singing our faith is practicing our hope.  Keep singing and practicing hope. 
 
 
Question:  How do you practice hope when you are not “feeling it?”
 
Prayer:  Lord, our hearts sometimes struggle to hold onto hope.  Put your song of hope in our heart. Amen.
 
Prayer Focus:  Pray for all those who help us “sing our faith.”