Christmas During Strife

It was 1864, and Henry, an American citizen living in England, was taking a walk on Christmas Eve.

Henry had lived a life full of tragedies. His first wife, a childhood sweetheart, died during a miscarriage of their first child.

His second wife, who bore him six children, was putting locks of one of their children’s hair into an envelope. She was in the process of sealing it with hot wax, when she tipped the wax over. The candle heating it ignited the wax and her clothes. He was severely burned trying to save her, but it was to no avail. She died the following morning, and he was too injured to attend her funeral.

Henry was an abolitionist and had long championed the cause of the elimination of slavery around the world. However, he was also a pacifist who abhorred war, and this Christmas Eve was the fourth during the very bloody American Civil War.

1864 was a bloody year in World History as well. In addition to the Civil War, the French had invaded Mexico, Muslims were revolting in China, and there was civil war in Japan. Other parts of the world engaged in conflict included the Dominican Republic, Uruguay, Tunisia, Russia, and Paraguay.

Henry contemplated all these conflicts as he walked the peaceful English countryside. “What irony,” he thought. "Here I am in a very serene and quiet setting while in other parts of the world people were devising the most brutal ways possible to kill each other."

He was still in depression from the death of his second wife, and he had just heard the news of Sherman’s march through Georgia. Atlanta had been burned, and Sherman, using US Census records, selectively raped, pillaged, and burned the richest plantations in Georgia as he marched to the sea. “War is Hell,” Sherman had exclaimed, and he wanted the Confederacy to realize it.

It was then that a single church bell started ringing, ushering in Christmas Eve. “Peace on Earth?” Henry mused? “There is no peace on earth! We are at war in five of seven continents!"

Almost immediately church bells started ringing all over the countryside. Henry thought for a second, and then a smile came across his face. He immediately returned home, went to his desk, pulled out pen, ink and paper, and started writing.

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."

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

In this past year of death, disease, civil disruption, and conflict, it is all too easy to give up on the world. But rest assured, God has a Plan, and we are all part of it. Things will get better. God has promised it. And God never fails to deliver on his promises. On this day we celebrate that Promise.

Merry Christmas, everyone.