Merry Christmas and Happy New Decade

My favorite Christmas carol has always been "Angels We Have Heard on High," I love the joy of it, the idea of the mountains rejoicing in the birth of the Savior, and how happy it makes me feel to sing it. However, this year the song that has touched me the most is "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" based on the poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow :

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men! ...

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!"

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."

Longfellow wrote this poem during a particularly gloomy moment during the Civil War, and while life for me this year hasn't been anywhere near that difficult, singing this last verse in church brought me to tears.

I was listening to a radio program today that said that Time Magazine declared the last ten years to be "The Decade From Hell." Apparently they pointed to the September 11th attacks, Hurricane Katrina and the economic crisis as their proof of this. While this last year has been a little crazy for Tracy and I, I look back at my life over the last ten years and see a decade full of joy and growth. My life is undeniably better. Do I think the rest of it will be perfect? No. But I do feel a sense of hope and optimism. Like Longfellow I know that in the end "The Wrong shall fail, The Right Prevail, With peace on earth, good will to men."