A Christmas Day Contemplation

“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!”

At first, this poem by the Fireside Poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, appears to be your average joyful Christmas song. Christmas time is oft marked with such joy, as it well should be. Yet, it is also a time of great sadness and despair for some. Sometimes Christmas serves as a reminder of who is not sitting next to you at the table. Fraught with empty chairs and broken dreams, Christmas can show us how affliction and pain never take winter vacations. The author of this Christmas carol heretofore mentioned knew that fact all too well.

   “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!’"

 At times, Christmas and all its joys in commemorating our Savior’s birth clashes with the harsh depravity and pain of this broken world. Often, it's hard to hear "peace on earth" above all the chaos on earth. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was well acquainted with such chaos and despair. When he penned the words to this carol, he was suffering the grief of two painful losses. First, that of his wife to a tragic fire, and then that of his son to the War Between the States.

    "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!"

Yes, this poet, along with many other American families of 1863, knew excessively well the strong hatred, the suffocating despair, and the loud mockery of "peace on earth" that the war wrought. The fact is, it’s a fallen world, full of fallen people. Since the fall of man, man has fallen ever since. The depravity and wickedness of men's heart hardly makes one want to break out in full chorus of “All things Bright and Beautiful.” Yet, Longfellow's last verse of the carol reminds us thus:

“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.’"

We have a glorious hope that did not stop in a manger, nor on a cross. Christ came to earth on a rescue mission armed with a redemptive purpose. When commemorating Christ's birth during this season, we can't be so focused solely on the manger that we forget the empty tomb and the victory Christ has won. Christmas is not dependent on your Christmas feeling (or lack thereof).  Christ is victorious over death, over Satan, over sin, and over our once stone-cold hearts. Surely, no chaos or despair can drown out that victory shout! The battle is already won, we have peace on earth because we have peace in Him. His word is full of promises of this peace. That does not mean that the chaos will up and away but that we can have security and “peace which transcends all understanding” in the midst of it (See Philippians 4:6-7). Whether it's the commercialism and the diminishing of Christmas' value by society, or a grievous affliction in your life this Christmas season that causes you to despair, fear not. Always remember the hope, the wonder, and the victory found in Emmanuel: God with us.