CHRISTMAS THOUGHTS, 2013
By Ed Pointer
December 14, 2013
NewsWithViews.com
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."
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow penned this poem which later became a familiar hymn. He had despaired in 1863 when his son went to fight in the Civil War,[1] and his wife had died in a fire so Longfellow was bereft of wife and with his son in the Union Army he was quite alone. On Christmas Day, 1864 he wrote the poem which became the Christmas song so familiar to many of us—his despair is understandable, many have had life changing experiences of one kind or another which seem doubly difficult at Christmas time—not necessarily the joyous occasion many celebrate.
Longfellow did conclude his poem on a more positive note however, which is obvious in the last few verses.
In times such as we are experiencing today it is tempting to stick our heads in the sand and hope everything will turn out alright—we really don’t want to know the various pitfalls into which we could stumble if not carefully thought out (the politicians of our nation have a collective IQ somewhere in the low 20’s—perhaps I’m being generous).
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The debate goes on and on: To have Obamacare or not, that is the question. To investigate Benghazi, NSA, IRS, those are questions too. And what about Fast and Furious, Agenda 21, China, Japan, the UN and the New World Order and our over $17 trillion debt which increases daily? Things could look hopeless if we’d stop and think about them even for a moment. Thus it is our bent not to think about them, to protect ourselves from what we inherently know to be a disaster as we wait for the other shoe to drop.
Longfellow summed it up pretty well in the last verse: “God is not dead nor doth He sleep…” And that is the hope of Christmas and our wish for the coming year, that “The Wrong shall fail, The Right prevail with peace on earth, good will to men.”
© 2013 Ed Pointer - All Rights Reserved
Footnotes:
1. I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
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This ArticleEd Pointer has been writing since he was in college. He writes about current affairs and the world scene as it relates to Biblical understanding. He teaches Scripture and finds happenings in the world better understood in the light of those same Scriptures. He is an artist/painter and has won many awards in that profession.
Website: EdPointer.com
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