“I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” is a popular Christmas carol based on the 1863 poem “Christmas Bells” by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play
And mild and sweet their songs repeat
Of peace on Earth, good will to menAnd the bells are ringing
Like a choir they’re singing
In my heart I hear them
Peace on Earth, good will to men
But what you might not know is that this Christmas classic was penned during one of the darkest chapters in our nation’s history, the American Civil War. If you’re like me, freedom-loving Americans can relate to the next stanzas:
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
For sure, there is much cause for despair about the present shape our nation is in, politically, culturally, and spiritually.
Remember the infectious hope so many Americans placed in Make America Great Again during Trump’s presidential campaign? I felt it too. Despite the many remarkable political gains by the Trump administration, for which we can be thankful, America remains far short of ‘great again’. Consider…
Does a Great Nation…
- abort over a million babies per year?
- become the biggest producer and distributer of pornography in the world?
- have the world’s highest percentage of drug addicts (12%)?
- have the world’s highest national debt ($32.9 trillion)?
- have a homelessness rate of 770,000 in 2024? And growing.
- have a yearly suicide rate of 50,000 (Idaho ranks 4th in the nation)
- indoctrinate its children into believing they can be born in the wrong body?
Despairing, stuff. Yet, we can take heart.
But the bells are ringing
Like a choir singing
Does anybody hear them?
Peace on Earth, good will to men
In a world on the brink of political uprisings and moral collapse, do you struggle to hear the bells declaring Peace on earth? I sure do.
Let’s remember that when Christ was born, He was born under the tyrannical superpower of His day, the pagan Roman empire, ruled by Cesar Augustus, the first emperor to declare himself God. And the cave where Jesus was born in Bethlehem was under the rule of the ruthless King Herod the Great of Judea.
So, just as in Christ’s day, Christ in His mercy, the Hope of the World, remains in our midst today, right here in post-Christian pagan America. And Idaho.
These few stanzas remind us that Christmas is a time for Americans to place their hope once more in the living loving God.
Then rang 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
Then 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
Hope for making America ‘Great Again’ lies not in the hands of politicians and generals, but in the hearts of everyday people, like you and me, by opening the caves of our hearts in faith to a great God born in Bethlehem.
And the bells, they’re ringing
Like a choir they’re singing
And with our hearts, we’ll hear them
Peace on Earth, good will to men
Let us shut our ears to the dark voices of despair and open our hearts in faith and humility to declare with the angels the joyous bells of heavenly hope and liberty ringing out across America, calling us back to God, to good will to men, and to America.
From all of us at MVLA PAC, we wish you and your loved ones a joyous blessed Christmas Day.
