Christmas Bells

Down the road from our home is a beautiful country church.
The kind of church where the steeple is visible for miles.
The kind of church where the bells ring on the hour.
The sound of those bells can be heard for miles.

When snow is on the ground, that church could be on the front of a Christmas card.
With the subtle illumination at night, it seems to beckon.
There is a graveyard next to the church with tombstones that date back 200 years.
It is the church bells however, that resonate with my heart.

There is something about bells that coincide with Christmas.
We sing Jingle Bells and bells inevitably are part of our decorations this time of year.
My neighbor, who loves horses, received actual sleigh bells as a gift one Christmas.
I was amazed at the weight of those bells.

If we hear the sound of sleigh bells, we are immediately transported to the song.
Sleigh Ride, composed by Leroy Anderson, was originally an orchestra piece.
Anderson began to write the song in a heat wave in July 1946.
He finished the song in February 1948.

In 1950, Mitchell Parish wrote the famous lyrics that we sing today.
My children used to love the original recorded version performed by the Boston Pops.
They would wait for the actual sound of the whip.
They would pretend that they were driving the horses through the snow.

There is something about Christmas bells.

Bells play a significant part in my favorite movie.
Every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings.
That is what Clarence told George Bailey when he heard the bell of the cash register.
Bells and Christmas seem to go together.

I had a small bell as a girl that only came out at Christmas time.
The handle of the bell was on old-fashioned Santa.
I loved the sound of that bell.
I would ring it often, but sadly the bell has been lost in the passages of time.

There is a carol about bells that is very special to me.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a poem on Christmas day in 1863.
His oldest son, Charles Appleton Longfellow joined the Union cause as a soldier.
He did not have his father’s blessing and he told his father in a letter after he left for war.
Charles got an appointment as a lieutenant, but was severely wounded eight months later.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow had lost his wife in an accidental fire.
Hearing the news of his wounded son was too much for him.
Longfellow wrote the poem Christmas Bells as a way to put his heart on paper.
The poem was first published in a juvenile magazine in 1865.

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!

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.”

The sound of the bells seemed incongruous to the pain that Longfellow felt.
He despaired that the world was full of hate; he decided there was no peace to be found.
However, as he pondered their sound, there was comfort in the truth the bells proclaimed.
It was not a mocking sound as he once thought but rather a triumphant sound.

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.”

Longfellow came to that place we all must come.
The place where we rest in the sovereignty of God.
The knowledge that the world’s worst evil cannot usurp the power and goodness of God.
The Right already has prevailed, first on the Cross and then in the empty tomb.

There was the sound of the Shofar when the Lord Jesus died on the cross.
At the moment the Passover lambs were being sacrificed for the family, Jesus died.
The Shofar was God’s bell.
At that moment, when the curtain was torn in two, peace with God was possible.

God is not dead!
God is not asleep!
The wrong that seems to be prevailing is, in fact, on its deathbed.
The bells are tolling loud and deep.

On that day, HOLY TO THE LORD will be inscribed on the bells of the horses and the cooking pots in the Lord’s house will be like the sacred bowls in front of the altar. (Zechariah 14:20)

Once HOLY TO THE LORD was only on the turban of the high priest. (Exodus 28:36-38)
One day, HOLY TO THE LORD will be applied to everything.
God’s presence makes things holy.
The bells resound with that truth.

Listen to the Christmas bells.
They beckon.
Do not despair, no matter how things appear.
The Wrong shall fail, the Right prevail.

Ring the bells!
He reigns!