A World of Hate

"I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" is one of my favorite Christmas carols. It was based on a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow called "Christmas Bells". He wrote it in 1863 while the Civil War was raging through our country.

While listening to the bells ringing on Christmas, he wrote this segment of verse to the poem, "For hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, good will to men".

Hate has been strong from the beginning of Creation.  The Bible story of Adam and Eve's son, Cain, because of hate and jealousy of his brother, we have the first murder.

You can go through the pages of history and hate is the cause of so much of what has happened on this earth.

Hate usually derives from fear, anger, or sense of injury. Hatred is an intense emotional feeling. Sometimes it is caused by things we don't understand. Sometimes hatred is something that was passed on to us from our parents and ancestors.

Sometimes we hate people because they are of a different color or a different race. Sometimes just because a person is a little different from what we think people ought to be like. 

My mind always goes back to World War II and the hatred of  Adolph Hitler and the Nazi Party for the Jewish people.  Because of their hatred for the Jews, they tried to wipe out a whole nation of people. The Germans thought they were the superior race. 

In this election year of 2020, I have seen so much hate. Each political party's degradation of one another. It makes me ashamed of our country and our leadership. No one is ever going to agree on the same thing. Right now Donald Trump is the President of our United States. We need to pray for him and respect him as our Commander in Chief.  

Hate is a sad thing. It can change our very character. It can turn into bitterness.

At the end of Longfellow's poem, he writes -

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."

Don't let the hate in our hearts push aside LOVE AND PEACE!

  Ephesians 4:31-32

Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.