Peace and Longfellow

I have been watching with interest the story of the Utah missing mother of two. Her husband claims that on the night she came up missing, he had taken his two sons (5 and 2, I think) camping -- leaving the house at 12:30 AM. Officials can find no evidence of a camp where he claims he was.

But it got me to thinking: Utah is one of the least-populated states in the US. It is also considered to be one of the most "moral" states -- due in large part to the high percentage of Mormons living there. Is it just my imagination, or does Utah seem to have more than its share of bizarre events like this?

I would like to see results of a study on people who are involved in legalistic religion. My opinion is that such people are taught to cover up and mask for so long that it leads to serious emotional problems.

Last night our men's group was studying Romans 8. Because of the season I am in on my spiritual journey, I am really struck by how often in that chapter (actually throughout Scripture), the concept of peace is a major theme. How often are we told that a characteristic of one who has been born again and has the Spirit residing within is this: PEACE. Unfortunately, I know too few people (I include myself for much of my journey) whose lives are characterized by peace.

Along that line, I came across this story:

One of America’s greatest poets is Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The year 1860 found Longfellow happy in his life, enjoying a widening recognition, and elated over the election of Abraham Lincoln which he believed signaled the triumph of freedom and redemption for the nation. The following year the Civil War began.

On July 9, 1861 Longfellow’s wife, Fanny, was near an open window sealing locks of her daughter’s hair, using hot sealing wax. Suddenly her dress caught fire and engulfed her with flames. Her husband, sleeping in the next room, was awaked by her screams. As he desperately tried to put out the fire and save his wife, he was severely burned on his face and hands. Fanny died the next day. Longfellow’s severe burns would not even allow him to attend Fanny’s funeral. His white beard, which so identified with him, was one of the results of the tragedy – the burn scars on his face made shaving almost impossible. In his diary for Christmas day 1861 he wrote, “How inexpressibly sad are the holidays.”

In 1862 the toll of war dead began to mount and in his diary for that year Longfellow wrote of Christmas, “A merry Christmas say the children, but that is no more for me.” In 1863 his son who had run away to join the Union army was severely wounded and returned home in December. There is no entry in Longfellow’s diary for that Christmas.

But on Christmas Day 1864 – at age 57 – Longfellow sat down to try to capture, if possible, the joy of the season. He began: 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. As he came to the third stanza, he was stopped by the thought of the condition of his beloved country. The Battle of Gettysburg was not long past. Days looked dark, and he probably asked himself the question, “How can I write about peace on earth, good will to men in this war-torn country, where brother fights against brother and father against son?” But he kept writing – and what did he write? 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. It seems as if he could have been writing for our kind of day. Then, as all of us should do, he turned his thoughts to the One who gives true and perfect peace, and continued writing: Then peeled 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.” And so there came into being that marvelous Christmas carol, “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.”