The holiday season is described as the “most joyous time of the year.” We fill our minds with sweet childhood memories of Christmas’ past. We easily reflect on what used to be at Christmas, but is no more. While everyone is expected to be smiling during the holidays, many are struggling with deep despair.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, one of America’s most famous poets, was enduring the terrible Civil War on Christmas day 1863. Earlier in 1861, he had lost his second wife of eighteen years in a fire. Just the month previous his son, Charles Longfellow was seriously injured in a battle fighting for the Union. Longfellow is despairing this Christmas day. To express his feelings he turns to poetry. He writes his famous poem “Christmas Bells.” The poem expresses much of the bitter divide and terrible times of war he was experiencing. He concludes with these two stances:
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."
You may be where Longfellow was this holiday season in your deep despair and anger with man. But let me hasten to encourage you to kindle hope through the ashes of despair. God is not dead, nor doth He sleep! God is on His throne (Rev. 4-5). Christ has come as the Savior and brought peace with God to mankind (Rom. 5:1). Darkness still prevails in this world of sin and death, but the light of Jesus has shown forth (John 8:12)! We can lift our heads like Longfellow and remember the hope we cling to in God. “The Wrong shall fail, the Right prevail, With peace on earth, good-will to men.”
