| DAY 10 |
Look, I am making everything new!
THE SEVENTH STANZA
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In 1861, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s wife died tragically in a fire. That first Christmas without her, he wrote in his diary, “How inexpressibly sad are the holidays.” The next year was no better, as he recorded, “‘A merry Christmas,’ say the children, but that is no more for me.”
The Civil War dragged on. Longfellow’s son was badly wounded. As church bells announced the arrival of another painful Christmas, Longfellow picked up his pen to write “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.”
The poem begins pleasantly, lyrically, but soon takes a dark turn. The violence of the pivotal fourth verse seems ill-suited for a Christmas carol. “Accursed” cannons “thundered,” mocking the message of peace. By the fifth and sixth verses, Longfellow’s desolation is nearly complete. “It was as if an earthquake rent the hearthstones of a continent,” he wrote. The poet nearly gave up. “And in despair, I bowed my head; ‘There is no peace on earth,’ I said.”
But from the depths of that bleak Christmas, Longfellow heard the irrepressible sound of hope. And he wrote this seventh stanza. 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.”
The war raged on, but it couldn’t stop Christmas. The Messiah is born! He promises, “I am making everything new!” (REVELATION 21:5). Change is in the air.
TIM GUSTAFSON
When have you faced despair? How does the promise of Revelation 21 give you hope?
Dear God, we long for the day when You will make all things new.
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TODAY’S SCRIPTURE | REVELATION 21:1–5
1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone.
2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a
bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
3 I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them.
4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”
5 And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” And then he said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.”
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