This week's Theme: Peace
Day 1: God is not dead
“I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
“I believe in the sun, though it be dark;
I believe in God, though He be silent;
I believe in neighborly love, though it be unable to reveal itself.”
These remarkable words of hope and faith, translated in slightly varying ways, were found scribbled on the walls of a concentration camp in Cologne, Germany.
Centuries earlier, King David, leader of a nation, had offered a similarly remarkable outlook: Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then I will be confident… (Psalm 27:3).
Like the Nazi prisoner in a cellar deep in the bowels of the earth, David knew there was light even in the darkness of war: “The Lord is my light and my salvation,” he begins the psalm, "whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalm 27:1).
Yet, we cannot minimize the grim realities of war. For the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow they struck close to home in 1863. The American Civil War was raging, and his eldest son Charles Appleton Longfellow, who had joined the Union Army without his permission, had been severely wounded.
To the poet, the sounds of war galloping and thundering across America seemed a mockery of the message of peace on earth that the angels had delivered at the birth of the Savior (Luke 2:14). On Christmas Day as he listened to the bells ringing out the long-standing tidings of peace, everything around him seemed to challenge the message. For a fleeting moment, he gave way to the darkness:
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!"
Many of us, like the poet, find it difficult to imagine much else darker and more despairing than war. The experiences and accounts of the atrocities of war through the centuries and into our day fill us with a deep longing to indeed realize peace on earth.
Yet, the Lord Jesus Himself has told us that before He comes to take up His reign and rule as the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6), wars and violence will escalate. And still, He offers this astounding instruction, “But see to it that you are not alarmed” (Matthew 24:6).
God still offers us the deep unshakable assurance David displayed: though war break out… even then I will be confident… (Psalm 27:3. In the midst of war, Jesus continues to speak into our hearts, “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” (John 14:27).
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow eventually apprehended that the voice of the Almighty is not drowned by the thundering cannons of war. The angel strain continues to echo, even though man, at war with man, hears not the love-song which they bring… (It Came Upon the Midnight Clear). God is not silent. God is not dead, nor doth He sleep.
Most versions of the Christmas Carol, I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day do not include several verses of Longfellow's original poem below:
I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
and mild 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 ~ 1863
Here is a YouTube link to one on of my favorite versions of the carol - by Casting Crowns. Too beautiful to not share!
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