Fifty-seven-year-old poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote to a friend in 1863: "I have been through a great deal of trouble and anxiety."
At this moment in which the widower with six children was losing his religion (as they say in the South when you're at the end of your rope), he found it.
He penned the memorable and meaningful poem, popularized with music for the past 60 years: "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day."
What was causing the famed poet "trouble and anxiety"? What is the story behind the poem?
It's a story from the Civil War. Actually, a Christmas story from the Civil War. But it applies to any war and any season.
It's a story about how hope can grow from despair. A headline on The Gospel Coalition blogger Justin Taylor's piece about the drafting of "Bells" started with this paradox: "The True Story of Pain and Hope ... ."
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As a Civil War Trust story tells it, 18-year-old Charles Appleton Longfellow ran off to join the Union Army in March 1863.
The oldest of six Longfellow children missed the Gettysburg campaign of 1863 because of typhoid but was back fighting in the field in the Mine Run campaign in Virginia that fall. On Nov. 27, he suffered a severe shoulder wound — the bullet almost nicking his spine.
His father traveled to Washington, D.C., to consult with doctors. Would Charles survive?
One doctor said the wound could result in paralysis. Another surgical team provided more promising news, saying the young soldier would survive but would require months of healing. History tells us the second team was right, and Charlie, as he was called, survived, never again to serve in uniform.
Taylor summed up Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's state of mind at Christmas, 1863:
"He heard the Christmas bells that December day and the singing of 'peace on earth (Luke 2:14),' but he observed the world of injustice and violence that seemed to mock the truthfulness of this optimistic outlook.The theme of listening recurred throughout the poem, eventually leading to a settledness of confident hope even in the midst of bleak despair."
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Longfellow's thoughts that day might reflect our own, as we think this Christmas season about the baby of humble parents born in a stable more than 2,000 years ago. Christians believe that Jesus, God's son, came to earth to live among men and women and to offer the world hope, then and now.
But then we think about those things today that defy peace. Terrorism in Paris and San Bernardino — the latter taking a former Red Lion man's life. And even that recent Harrisburg case in which officials thwarted a possible terrorist attack. We all know about all the troubling rumblings and aftershocks felt around the world seemingly every day.
How did Longfellow work through this disconnect between peace and panic?
Maybe we can learn the lesson along with Longfellow: "God is not dead, nor doth He sleep."
Here's the hopeful sound the poet heard from the 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!"
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."
