The Bells We Wish We Did Not Hear:

SOMETHING  TO THINK ABOUT Christmas is a season of bells, "silver," "jingle," and those you hear on "Christmas Day,"  I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day  Casting Crowns Last Friday the bell tolled 26 times.  The reverberations of its ringing still vibrates in our hearts.  Definitely not a bell we want to hear, especially not at Christmas.   The poet reminds us that we ought not to ask ". . . for whom the bell tolls?"  The sad reality is "It tolls for thee."   For me, and you. The children who were killed in Sandy Hook are our children. The adults are our neighbors. The troubled young man who killed them is one among thousands for whom we need to care.  (See here for an interesting and troubling article.)   Let's not go the wrong direction, here.  A lot of leaders are speaking about what we--as in our our nation, our society, our government--need to do.  We need, they say, morelaws, more restrictions, tighter security systems.  I'm not going to let this go very far.  I don't want to get in a shouting match across graves that are still open.  But that is what we don't need.  The answer is not primarily a stronger arm of the law.  It is a more compassionate arm that hugs and guides.  The solutions will not be arrived at in the chambers of congress and legislatures, but at breakfast tables, community picnic tables, and church pews.  We must stop saying "You," as in "You need to fix this."  Rather, we ought to say, "We," or even, "I," as in I need to help my neighbor who is struggling to raise a troubled child, or we as members of this community need to be more involved, or to put it in the words of our Lord, I will be "salt and light."   I can still hear the ". . .ong" part of the bell's toll.  Lord, may it motivate me to make my world a better place.  AMEN.   It's Something to Think About.