I was listening to a Christmas playlist featuring the likes of Merle Haggard and Johnny Cash last week when this version of “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” came on. I was struck, for the very first time, by what the lyrics actually say.

The song tells of the lyricist's experience hearing Christmas carols being played on church bells one Christmas day. It begins with the lyricist having a kind of nostalgic moment with the bells:

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.

He hears and enjoys that familiar sound and it reminds him of that Great Christmas Pronouncement, “Peace on earth, good will to men.” He seems to be filled with a kind of nostalgia here, commenting on the "old familiar carols” being both “wild and sweet.” I can relate to the lyricist. I'm amazed at how quickly memories of childhood and Christmases of yesteryear are conjured up by those familiar tastes, sights, smells, and melodies.

But then, somewhat surprisingly, the lyricist is moved to despair by those bells:

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."

The song was written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow during The Civil War. As he considers what's happening in the States during those times, he says those Christmas bells and The Great Pronouncement they evoke are only cause for cynicism and despair. Peace on earth? Good will to men? That's rich. Take a look around! Reality “mocks the song.”

We can relate to that, too, I suspect. Looking around at everything we're so aware of these days, it makes it easy to scoff at any suggestion of “peace” and “good will”; such sentiments feel cheap, cliche, and trite. They only remind us of the harsh reality of how things are.

But watch how the song ends:

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."

Though he sees wickedness and strife all around him -- and though the bells initially only aggravate his sense of how broken everything is -- he remembers: Christmas assures us that God will bring about His peace. God isn't indifferent or aloof to our suffering. No! On Christmas morning, God came to us and announced His intention: to reconcile the world to Himself through Jesus. God will right all wrongs and deliver His happy ending. The songwriter is restored to hope!

So maybe you also find these lyrics relatable.

Maybe your experience of Christmas was primarily sentimental; it was about saccharine songs and cookies and feelings of nostalgia and trying to recreate that perfect Christmas from childhood.

Then life sets in and you find yourself feeling more and more cynical about it all (often in reaction to those sentimental, sappy types). We've become embittered towards the holiday. What use is it singing about joy and hope and love when everything looks like…this? Peace and goodwill towards men? Give me a break. It's all become so commercialized and overdone. Yuck. And every carol you hear just presses the thorn further in.

But, like the songwriter, we then have passing moments where we're moved by “the bells more loud and deep;” it dawns on us that Christmas is the assurance that even in the darkness, the Light of Christ has and will overcome. We're freshly reminded that Christmas marks the beginning of God's eternal purpose to make right all things new, kick-started by that baby in the manger.

When we hear these bells, especially in light of how dark and dreary it all feels right now, let us be moved to merry-making. Not because all is right, but because Christmas tells the good news of all things being one day made right in Jesus.

Merry Christmas, friends!