We have all experienced a tragic event whose ripple effect impacts everyone. Many are approaching Christmas wih heavy hearts, in no mood to celebrate.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow seemed in a similar place when he wrote the carol now referred to as “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.” In 1864 on Christmas Day, Longfellow received word that his son, a soldier in the Civil War, had been wounded. Just two years before, he lost his wife in a fire. As he was grieving, he wrote words of hope to challenge his own despair. He called the poem “Christmas Bells.”
“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 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.’