Peace On Earth: Finding Joy Despite the Chaos

The world looks like it is coming apart.

War continues to rage in Ukraine, with people living in the cold without power or heat. A winter snowstorm is invading most of America at a time when people want to travel for Christmas. Economists predict a recession in 2023. And we still must contend with COVID-19, coupled with flu and RSV.

You would not be alone. Henry would join you in that assessment.

What seemed to irritate him the most was the peeling of the bells in the local church belfry that proclaimed the joys of the Christmas season.

As the sound wafted through his window into his writing room in Cambridge, MS, he thought of how the world had gone all wrong.

Henry had tried to save his wife from a fire, but he could not. She died. He still bore the scars from the burns he suffered in his attempt.

His son, Charles, was only 19 and the foolish boy boarded a train to Washington, DC, where he joined the Union Army. He would fight in a bloody Civil War.

At a little thicket at Gettysburg, PA, a battle would spill gallons of the blood of young men. Henry had no reason for hope.

Charles’ first battle was at Chancellorsville, VA, one of great carnage. He survived the contest but contracted typhoid fever.

That November, President Lincoln proclaimed that the nation would celebrate a day of thanksgiving. For Henry, what was there to give thanks?

A few days later, on December 1st, Henry was dining with friends when a courier arrived with a telegram. The message said that Charles lay in a hospital, severely wounded in battle. Henry immediately caught a train to the army hospital. He took Charles home, but his son would likely never walk again.

It was a bleak December. Henry would hear preachers speak of “peace on earth,” and the bells would ring in a mockery of all Henry experienced.

On Christmas Day, 1863, Henry found himself a 57-year-old widowed father of six children, the oldest of which was unable to walk as his country fought a war against itself. As he sat in his home, the bells of Cambridge began to peel. People began singing the words of Luke 2:14–peace on earth.

The song mocked him.

So Henry Wadsworth Longfellow put pen to paper. He wrote out his feelings to resolve his anger.

 

I heard the bells on Christmas Day

Their old, familiar carols play,

and mild and sweet

The words repeat

Of peace on earth, goodwill 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, goodwill 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, goodwill 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, goodwill 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, goodwill 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, goodwill 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, goodwill to men.”

Singing of joy and peace in a world that lacks much of both seems insane.

But when the angels sang that song, the world was not much better. Herod committed a gruesome purging of baby boys. Roman boots clopped through Jerusalem streets.

Yet, God was invading our world in the form of a baby. And God continues to inhabit our world.

Sometimes, faith must claw its way out of the chaos. It must look beyond the illusions of hostility to see what is real. The phrase that speaks to me is the one that says, “God is not dead, nor doth he sleep.”

Our perspective is flawed by man’s actions. God is in control even when the world is out of control.

For peace on earth is not up to men but happens when we all bow to God and realize God is not dead and he does not sleep.

So hear the bells.

Have a Merry Christmas.