God is not Dead, Not Doth He Sleep

Every year as Advent begins the music in our house becomes nothing but Advent style worship music and Classic Christmas music - or really just all Christmas music. Pretty much all other music stops playing for a 5 week period.

And, every year there is some song or some lyric that I’ve heard 1,000x over at this point that will grab me. I’ll really hear it for the first time - or as if it were the first time. This usually results in a small amount of tears and me putting that song on repeat for the remainder of the day a couple more times before the Christmas decorations get boxed back up. Usually it is a line from “O Come O Come Emmanuel” or “Silent Night”, occasionally its new song, but usually it is “O Come O Come”.

Several years ago though, I remember driving and “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” came on in the shuffle. The Civil Wars version to be precise. If you are wanting to listen at home, the Jonny Cash version is also quite enjoyable.

Point being, the thing happened.

Driving along, time sort of froze. The lyrics filled my ears and my imagination. Maybe it’s something I am going through at the moment. Or, maybe it is a mood I am in. But, the funny thing is that I rarely remember why it stuck with me just that it does. Those lyrics hold a power and weight forever for me.

I think it is the Holy Spirit interrupting my world, sparking joy deep with in me, in an ordinary mundane moment. And in that moment these lyrics reveal something about who God is and what this season means for us.

The specific lyric from the song is this:

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

Wait what? I was new to really trying to observe Advent, I hadn’t quite gotten the hang of it if you will. Advent was more than a Christmas countdown, but the essence of the four weeks hadn’t capture me yet. And this song was part of it for me. That is not a Christmas lyric. That is not warm and fuzzy.

It is not nostalgia and sentimentality.

It is what we honestly often times feel.

Despair in an attempt to conjure up some Hope in the face of what we see play out in front of us.

But the song doesn’t end there. It continues (here is where the goose bumps hit):

Then rang the bells more loud and deep
God is not dead, nor does he sleep
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, good will to men

The Hope of Advent right there. God is not Dead, nor doth He sleep.

Every week that we light one bright candle for Peace I think of this, the Peace of God coming to Earth. A Peace that came that Silent night, a peace that came as a baby slept,

Son of God, oh, love's pure light
Radiant beams from Thy holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace
Jesus, Lord at Thy birth

Peace in Jesus who came to us in human flesh and even then still Lord of All.

Peace that will ultimately come and set right, as the song promises.

And for what had been and will be, give me the ability to look for peace now. As God is not dead, no, he does not slumber or sleep, but He is on the move and we too can be caught up in what He is doing Here on Earth as it is in Heaven.