Hear the bells on Christmas Day

OPINION:

Like millions of Americans, this Christmas season, we will gather with our whole family in Indiana. With two of our kids’ families in active-duty military service, it has been three long years since we have all been together. We’re eager to gather around the table, engage in the richness of old traditions, and celebrate a season that has always brought hope and joy to families across our nation and around the world.

But this year’s celebrations will take place against a backdrop of discord in our nation. Our politics seem more divided than at any other time in my life. Civility feels like a thing of the past, and political debates are too often about exchanging barbs rather than working to find common ground. In times like these, we do well to look to the past, to what Americans have endured, by focusing on what matters most — faith, family, and the true meaning of Christmas.

The poem, “Christmas Bells,” was written over 150 years ago in a time much darker and more divided than we can comprehend: the bleak days of the Civil War. Written on Christmas Day 1863 by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the poem captures the despair and hopelessness that Americans were feeling at the time.

Overcome by the horrors of the war and personal tragedy, Mr. Longfellow wrote:

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!”

Mr. Longfellow despaired that peace and unity could ever return to America after so many years of bitterness, division and loss. 

As Americans, we are fortunate to live in the freest nation ever created, where all citizens have the God-given right to express our opinions and engage in political debate. Our democratic system requires us to divide into teams and square off in our elections in a contest of ideas. At this special time of the year, we do well to remember we don’t have to compromise our convictions to be kind to one another.

I believe the American people are not as divided as our politics. They are looking to the future with hope, ready to heal the divisions of the recent past and rediscover the bonds of love and loyalty that unite us as citizens of the greatest nation on Earth.

If we are willing to take time this season to reflect on the greatest gift that came so long ago, to “hear the bells on Christmas Day,” I believe we will find the same renewed faith that Longfellow expressed in the final refrain of his poem:

“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.”

For ultimately, our greatest hope lies not in politics or government but in a humble manger far away in Bethlehem. When we renew our faith in Him, that’s when we can truly love our neighbors as He did. So in the spirit of Christmas, let us each strive to deepen our own faith, to love our neighbors as ourselves and bring about the renewed sense of unity that our country so desperately needs. Merry Christmas.

• Mike Pence served as Vice President of the United States and is the founder of Advancing American Freedom.