{"id":947,"date":"2010-12-27T03:15:00","date_gmt":"2010-12-27T03:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/day-357-christmas-sorrow-i-heard-the-bells-on-christmas-day\/"},"modified":"2015-09-18T12:07:35","modified_gmt":"2015-09-18T16:07:35","slug":"day-357-christmas-sorrow-i-heard-the-bells-on-christmas-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/day-357-christmas-sorrow-i-heard-the-bells-on-christmas-day\/","title":{"rendered":"day 357: christmas sorrow\u2014\u201ci heard the bells on christmas day\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThen pealed the bells more loud and deep\u201d:<\/strong><\/span>
<\/strong><\/span>
\u2018God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;”<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Having a family who is close to us spend their first Christmas without their mother reminds me daily that there are many out there who are hurting, some even despairingly sorrowful, this Christmas. I long to do something, anything, to lessen their pain\u2026and yet I feel inadequate to do so.<\/p>\n

Then came our reading in \u201cStories Behind the Songs of Christmas\u201d about Henry Wadsworth Longfellow\u2019s \u201cChristmas Bells\u201d poem (today sung as \u201cI Heard the Bells on Christmas Day\u201d). While it did not give me any specific insight into how to reach out to those I love who are hurting this Christmas, it did remind me once again, that God is there\u2014always\u2014and that some day they will hurt less than today\u2026and then later less\u2026though the hollowness will always be there to a certain degree. God will be there.<\/p>\n

Christmas 1863 found Longfellow in despair. The Civil War was raging; his wife had died two years previously in a freak accident; and his son returned form the war with severe wounds. <\/p>\n

That Christmas Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote the poem, \u201cChristmas Bells,\u201d with its well-known words:<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard the bells on Christmas day,<\/p>\n

Their old, familiar carols play.<\/p>\n

And wild and sweet, the words repeat,<\/p>\n

Of peace on earth, goodwill to men.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Wadsworth\u2019s original poem, there are two verses about the Civil War, which we do not sing as part of \u201cI Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.\u201d The following verse we do sing\u2014and it shows us so clearly the pain that this man faced:<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd in despair, I bowed by head;<\/p>\n

\u2018There is no peace on earth,\u2019 I said;<\/p>\n

\u2018For hate is strong and mocks the song<\/p>\n

Of peace on earth, good will to men!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The next verse, however, is the one that gives us hope\u2014and the one that I wish I could place within the soul of every hurting person I love (and the one that I needed within my soul just twelve Christmases ago when I could not leave the sofa on Christmas day following the stillbirth of our final baby just two months earlier):<\/p>\n

\u201cThen pealed the bells more loud and deep\u201d:<\/p>\n

\u2018God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;<\/p>\n

The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,<\/p>\n

With peace on earth, good will to men!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Somehow when you know a fellow traveler has walked the path of sorrow and grief before you\u2014and has come out with words within his heart of the magnitude of this song\u2014you feel the strength from his journey to carry on in your own. <\/p>\n

That is what I love about this song\u2014the honesty that yes, this journey felt impossible at times. But he made it to the other side with praise for God and a knowing that \u201cGod is not dead, nor doth he sleep!\u201d And those I love will too.<\/p>\n

Listen to Casting Crowns sing this incredible song: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=M7670CXvPX0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThen pealed the bells more loud and deep\u201d:\u2018God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;” Having a family who is close to us spend their first Christmas without their mother reminds me daily that there are many out there who are hurting, some even despairingly sorrowful, this Christmas. 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