I heard the bells...

“I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was written after he got word that his son, I believe his only son, was seriously wounded in the Civil War. His son joined without his father’s consent. Longfellow was still mourning his wife’s death at the time.

He could have stopped at the third stanza, as a lot of people do, but Longfellow knew “the rest of the story,” there’s a tomorrow and God’s already there, waiting for us, as well as being “ever-present” today.

Christians know of a loving God, who hurts with us, through America’s Civil War and Sandy Hook “the wrong shall fail, the right prevail, with peace on Earth, good will to men.”

Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year!

I pray that everyone reading this will have a saving relationship with Jesus.

Stephen L. Heinecke

Baxter