About the Children’s Department: Countdown-to-Christmas – Casting Crowns

I Heard the Bells is based on a poem by Longfellow. During the Civil War, his oldest son joined the Union Army, against his wishes, and was wounded in a battle. This poem was written in 1863 by Longfellow as he thought about his son and the recent death of his wife; it was first set to music in 1872 (info I found on Wikipedia).

As you listen to this song you can hear a father’s despair and grief and then the peace which comes from knowing, “God is not dead, nor doth He sleep; The Wrong shall fail, The Right prevail, With peace on earth, good-will to men.”