Peace on Earth

We were watching the Christmas classic last night, White Christmas, and the opening scenes have Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye singing I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas while "December 1944" flashes at the bottom of the screen. Location: front lines of the war. I don't know that I had noticed the date before, but it reminded me of a tragic story from our family's past, Christmas Eve, 1944 during the Battle of the Bulge.

The Battle of the Bulge was the bloodiest of the battles that U.S. forces experienced in World War II; the 19,000 American dead were unsurpassed by those of any other engagement. It began the 16th of December, 1944 and lasted through nearly the end of January. My great uncle was one of the casualties. In a letter written by a fellow soldier to my great grandmother describing what happened that Christmas Eve, the family learned that Harold crawled into another fox hole to join men singing Christmas carols. And it was that fox hole that was hit by enemy shelling.

One song haunts me at Christmas, from the first time I actually "heard" the words. They were penned by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow during our bloody Civil War in 1864. The words were set to music in 1872 by John Calkin. We know it as "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day".

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.

I thought how as the day had come

The belfries of all Christendom

Had roll'd along th' unbroken song

Of Peace on earth, good will to men.

And in despair, I bow'd 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 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 hearthstones of a continent,

And made forlorn, the households born

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."

Because stanzas 4 and 5 mention battle times, they are often omitted from hymnals. But why? Should we not understand that it is mankind's hatred that brings terror & death? The song isn't pretty or cozy, which is probably why we don't hear it often at Christmas. The last stanza is reassuring, but no doubt brings little comfort to those who have lost loved ones. And are we not God's hands and feet of peace on this earth while He tarries? It is within our power to bring some "peace on earth" if even just in our corner of this world.

My grandfather, who knew war, had this saying crafted and placed high on his barn....and there it remained-even as his son went away to war. I felt this too important to lose when the family farm sold, so it has a place in our home now. And when I see it, I am reminded that peace is within our power and pray that my children never know war.

Pray that men's hearts are changed to know the peace of our Lord Jesus this Christmas and into the New Year.