“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” (Luke 2:14 KJV)
Peace and goodwill on earth is a tenuous thing. Some even think of it as an impossibility. Yet, both are available through the one who was born in the manger so many years ago. In those days there were no media to inform the world of this event. So, God sent his angels to proclaim it to some shepherds who, after they found the babe in the manger, published the news “which was told them concerning this child” (Luke 2:17 KJV).
It is interesting to me that God has always spread his Good News by first-hand, experiential, word-of-mouth advertising. In the Middle Ages, the Church began suspending bells from belfries to be rung as the announcement to the faithful that worship services were about to begin. Somewhere along the line chiming the Christmas carols became popular.
At a time when peace and goodwill was distinctly missing in America — the Civil War — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote his Christmas Day (1864). As the church bells rang out Christmas carols, Longfellow heard ” wild and sweet the words repeat Of peace on earth, good will to men.”
He thought of how “all Christendom Had rolled along the unbroken song Of peace on earth, good will to men.” But he wrote, “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.'”
But to Longfellow the bells pealed the message even “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.”
“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!”
Dear Father, thank you for the peace and goodwill you give to each of us through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Inspire us to share it with those who are still searching for it. This I pray in the name of Jesus. AMEN
Be courageous today and share peace and goodwill on earth,