May the Bells Remind Us

When I am with my grandsons, any one or all four of them, there is JOY!  I cannot help but smile - and all is right with the world, even if it isn’t.  I see their budding personalities (especially the 8 year old) and their developing sense of humor (the 2 and 3 year olds), and the wonder of their trusting smile (the 7 month old), and life is just good!

But there are times, in the still of the night, when they come to mind.  They are all home sleeping in their beds, peacefully, I assume.  But dread for their future creeps in, and I fear the world they will inherit.

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.”

No doubt my grandmother had the same midnight fears for me, as did her grandmother before for her.  In the end, I must put my faith where generation before have placed theirs – in the everlasting, unfailing, all-powerful baby in a manger.

 

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.”

Those are Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s words.  But I think he got the idea from God, who recorded it a couple of millennium earlier in 1 John 4:4, “The one who is in you (God) is greater than the one who is in the world.”

A voice, a chime, a chant sublime,

Of peace on earth, good will to men!

Sleep well, Bryce. 

Rest in Jesus, Aidan. 

Grow to change the world, Tyler. 

The Spirit will be with you, Josiah.  

God holds you each tenderly…