“Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings.”  George Bailey’s Clarence (Angel, Second Class), let the main character of It’s A Wonderful Life in on this little truth as Nick the bartender rang up a sale on his cash register.  At the end of the movie, little Zu Zu saw a bell ring on the family Christmas tree and quoted her teacher saying the same thing. “Atta boy, Clarence!” George responded as he was coming to grips with his transformative experience and one of its results: his angel got his wings.

     But seriously, every time a bell rings an angel gets its wings? That’s a lot of angels.  That’s a lot of wings!

     Wings = Responding Favorably to the Spirit: George, Jesus, Mary and Joseph. What does that even mean? If this story is guide, it refers to those moments when human beings or creation itself hears and responds to God, which is a response to love with love.  Sometimes we’re so entrenched in seasons and moments where love seems absent that we struggle to believe that God is still active. We need to pause, to be still, to allow moments to reflect. We may not get something quite as elaborate as George Bailey’s nightmare in Pottersville, but if we take a moment to breathe, we will begin to hear more and more bells ringing, sounding out the ever-present, never-ending truth that the Spirit of God didn’t become incarnate only at Jesus’ birth, but had been in and with us all along. Jesus spent his ministry ringing that bell, proclaiming that the presence of God is everywhere, which means the sights and sounds of love are, too.  In fact, it was Mary’s resounding “Yes!” to the invitation of God that set this season of bell ringing in motion, followed by Joseph’s “Yes!” All paradoxes in their own way, all moments of hearing and responding to the Spirit of God despite overwhelming fear. Bells pealed when those two humans responded favorably to the angel’s invitation. Bells still peal.

     When darkness defeans, mindfulness allows us to hear. We can easily be duped into thinking that all things that are “not love” are greater than the presence of love. Sometimes the noise of bad news drowns out the bells ringing the Good News.  Yet when we allow ourselves space to be still and quiet, a mindful, intentional act of employing our natural, built-in noise-cancelling headphones, we can hear – even if faintly at first – bells still peal.  We can choose to hear and see every strike of a hammer hitting a bell – however great or small – every act of love between a mother and child, between friends, between lovers, between people with opposing views, every time creation itself responds to love calling it forth to continue to flourish, every time a person or animal or tree or so many things we don’t yet know about giving of itself in sacrificial ways out of love, we hear it. Bells still peal.

     Bells Still Peal: Disclaimers, Suckiness, Choosing relationship – we can say yes to more pealing!

     The truth is that if a bell was rung every time creation and humanity responded to the Spirit’s invitation to see and act with love, all we would ever hear are bells pealing.

     There are parts of our lives with asterisks, disclaimers about things we wish had been different in our lives or life in general. Yet bells still peal.

     There are seasons of suck during our lives when we are caught in self-destructive patterns or in the destructive decisions of others or just random suckiness that are all part of the human experience. Yet bells still peal.

     There are opportunities to gather in seasons like this when we choose to ring the bells in our own way, with wishing people Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays and sending cards and attending parties and feasting together and exchanging gifts – the list goes on and on.  When we do, the bells peal and peal and peal.

     Longfellow. Nineteenth century American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow experienced deep sorrow. In 1861 he lost his beloved wife to an accidental fire.  In 1863 his son, without his father’s blessing, joined the Union Army to fight against the Confederate South. He was severely wounded in the Battle of Mine Run.  The sounds of canon fire and death were ringing in Longfellow’s imagination when he picked up his pen on Christmas Day, 1863 and wrote a poem entitled “Christmas Bells.” The poem was eventually set to music and became known as “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.”

     May you have ears to hear this Christmas Day – and every day – the ever-present sound of everlasting Love. The bells still peal.

Questions: Where is love showing up in life right now? What is Love calling you to do and become?

Christmas Bells

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom 
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime,
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South, 
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
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."