Peace on Earth, Good Will to Men

I love Christmas poems, as you might have noticed from the quote I've used this month on the home page of my website.

Henry Longfellow's poem 'I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day' was written in 1864, during the American civil war, but the fourth verse:
"For hate is strong and mocks the song, Of peace on earth, good will to men" rings just as truly now as it did 140 years ago. How many Christmases since then have approached with hatred mocking the call to Peace on Earth?

Yet we come into the season looking past the neon Santas and rushing crowds, to the very basis of Christmas - the birth of a baby whose coming would change the world. So we can echo the final verse of Longfellow's hymn: 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."

Amen, may it be so.