Two thousand years of wrong

MM#108 It Came Upon A Midnight Clear     It came upon the midnight clear,     That glorious song of old,     From angels bending near the earth,     To touch their harps of gold:     "Peace on the earth, goodwill to men,     From heaven's all-gracious King."     The world in solemn stillness lay,     To hear the angels sing.     Yet with the woes of sin and strife     The world has suffered long;     Beneath the angel-strain have rolled     Two thousand years of wrong;     And man, at war with man, hears not     The love-song which they bring;     O hush the noise, ye men of strife,     And hear the angels sing.     For lo!, the days are hastening on,     By prophet bards foretold,     When with the ever-circling years     Comes round the age of gold     When peace shall over all the earth     Its ancient splendors fling,     And the whole world give back the song     Which now the angels sing.

MM#109 Belleau Wood Garth Brooks Oh, the snowflakes fell in silence Over Belleau Wood that night For a Christmas truce had been declared By both sides of the fight As we lay there in our trenches The silence broke in two By a German soldier singing A song that we all knew Though I did not know the language The song was "Silent Night" Then I heard my buddy whisper "All is calm and all is bright" Then the fear and doubt surrounded me Because I'd die if I was wrong But I stood up in my trench And I began to sing along   Then across the frozen battlefield   Another's voice joined in   Until one by one each man became   A singer of the hymn Then I thought that I was dreaming For right there in my sight Stood the German soldier 'Neath the falling flakes of white And he raised his hand and smiled at me As if he seemed to say Here's hoping we both live to see us Find a better way Then the devil's clock struck midnight And the skies lit up again And the battlefield where heaven stood Was blown to hell again But for just one fleeting moment The answer seemed so clear Heaven's not beyond the clouds It's just beyond the fear No, heaven's not beyond the clouds It's for us, to find it, here

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Sometimes, there's a single phrase in a song that catches me - and not necessarily something obvious.  From "Life has killed the dream" from "I dreamed a dream", MM #45; to "We became stepdads and soccer moms" in "Life Happened", MM#85.  And perhaps the most notable in our family's history was "Who brings my chaos back into order",  "This Is Amazing Grace", MM#96.

Both of these songs have a line that I haven't forgotten. 

"Beneath the angel-strain have rolled / two thousand years of wrong"
Living in A.D. 2017, over two thousand years since the Word of God became flesh...are things better...are we kinder to each other...has the command to love God and love our neighbor been better obeyed?  In some ways...a little.  But there's still so much distrust, so much fear of the other, so much scapegoating. 

"Then the devil's clock struck midnight"
It's horrible how so often we can discard our shared humanity - in some cases our shared heritage or our shared faith.  War is hell, even at times setting brother against brother.