Bells Across the Snow by Frances Ridley Havergal

 As I contemplate this, my first Christmas with both mom and dad in heaven, I find a bit of solace in the poem below. I hope it blesses you as well. Have a blessed Christmas! 

BELLS ACROSS THE SNOW

    O Christmas, merry Christmas,

      Is it really come again,

    With its memories and greetings,

      With its joy and with its pain!

    There’s a minor in the carol

      And a shadow in the light,

    And a spray of cypress twining

      With the holly wreath tonight.

    And the hush is never broken

      By laughter light and low,

    As we listen in the starlight

      To the “bells across the snow.”

    O Christmas, merry Christmas,

      ’Tis not so very long

    Since other voices blended

      With the carol and the song!

    If we could but hear them singing,

      As they are singing now,

    If we could but see the radiance

      Of the crown on each dear brow,

    There would be no sigh to smother,

      No hidden tear to flow,

    As we listen in the starlight

      To the “bells across the snow.”

    O Christmas, merry Christmas,

      This never more can be;

    We cannot bring again the days

      Of our unshadowed glee,

    But Christmas, happy Christmas,

      Sweet herald, of good will,

    With holy songs of glory

      Brings holy gladness still.

    For peace and hope may brighten,

      And patient love may glow,

    As we listen in the starlight

      To the “bells across the snow.”

Frances Ridley Havergal

Lettie B. Cowman, Streams in the Desert (Los Angeles, CA: The Oriental Missionary Society, 1925), 369.

Thanks for reading!