Bells ringing

Merry Christmas

On my knees, outside in the driveway balancing a flashlight between my shoulder and my chin, I can see the culprit that has been my nemesis for weeks. Poised just beyond reach, I can see the gleam of its reflection as it coyly enjoys its placement directly under the back bench seat of the minivan. The construction of the van seats has permitted incredible amounts of knee room for child and adult who occupy the back seat, but there is no room underneath the seat to reach in and grasp anything.

And in this absolutely unreachable spot, so close and yet so far, too small to permit my hand, too cramped to navigate my arm, too tight to manipulate my wrist, there shines the lone jingle bell.

It fell off its band of leather back in November as I travelled a Christmas kettle bell ringer from his daily location to his home. As I navigated the town, he gave the needed directions and we helped him out of the van carefully for it was quite icy and his street has a pronounced incline. In the few minutes this all took, this loose jingle bell rolled to the back of the van, drooped into the well which holds the seat and has remained there all Christmas season.

Every left turn has been punctuated by its definite jingle. Every parking lot speed bump is another chance to be reminded this bell remains in the van. Each pothole rings true and clear. I feel like Santa’s sleigh all over town, every day. My 1 ½ hour drive to my seminary classes had normally been a very intentional thinking time, with no radio or book on tape as distraction…but with this jingle bell just beyond reach, my ride resembles a Christmas toy delivery extravaganza. Travelling to brass band rehearsal each week in the neighboring county has become a jangling, jingling headache. Santa only needs to listen to those sleigh bells one night – this has been a 6 weeks prison.

I hate that bell.

I must make the effort to get it; it won’t go away on its own. I have to make the time – it won’t take much, I just have to do it. I need to empty the trunk, remove the seat, get some tweezers and climb into the trunk and stretch. It might help to have a magnet stick, we’ll see. Even though there are so many obligations and responsibilities interlaced within ministry and family life this Christmas season, I find this task is becoming more imperative – I gotta stop this bell from ringing! I have been repeating Rose Hartwick Thorpe’s poem, “Curfew Must Not Ring Tonight”, whispering it under my breath with new emphasis and connection – I feel compelled, like the poem’s heroine Bessie, to get to that bell, to keep it from ringing before I absolutely lose my composure.

Curfew Must Not Ring Tonight. http://womenshistory.about.com/library/etext/poem1/blp_thorpe_curfew.htm These are stanzas of a love story with compelling sacrifice, dramatic, essential action and persuasive personal investment. If the bell rings, her lover will be executed for whatever crime he has been accused. The only authority who can grant pardon will not arrive until after the curfew bell rings. So the reader finds Bessie poised within a decision…

She has reached the topmost ladder, o'er her hangs the great dark bell;
Awful is the gloom beneath her, like the pathway down to hell.
See! the ponderous tongue is swinging; 'tis the hour of curfew now,
And the sight has chilled her bosom, stopped her breath, and paled her brow.
Shall she let it ring? No, never! Her eyes flash with sudden light,
As she springs, and grasps it firmly: "Curfew shall not ring to-night!"

Out she swung,-- far out. The city Seemed a speck of light below,--
There twixt heaven and earth suspended, As the bell swung to and fro.
And the sexton at the bell-rope, old and deaf, heard not the bell,
Sadly thought that twilight curfew rang young Basil's funeral knell.
Still the maiden, clinging firmly, quivering lip and fair face white,
Stilled her frightened heart's wild throbbing: "Curfew shall not ring tonight!"

O'er the distant hills comes Cromwell. Bessie sees him; and her brow,
Lately white with sickening horror, has no anxious traces now.
At his feet she tells her story, shows her hands, all bruised and torn;
And her sweet young face, still hagggard, with the anguish it had worn,
Touched his heart with sudden pity, lit his eyes with misty light.
"Go! your lover lives," said Cromwell. "Curfew shall not ring to-night!"

In the face of decision, compelling love underscored the need for sacrifice. She covers the clapper of the bell with her own body, feeling the crushing blows as the bell is attempted to be rung. Because of the depth of her love, she experienced pain. The guilt of the one accused is never in question.

Compelling love underscores the need for sacrifice. Christ’s love for us can be expressed within those same parameters. In the face of mankind’s eternal separation from God because of sin, Christ stepped out – far out – into this world, born as a child whose birth emphasized with divine punctuation, “Emannuel God with us!” God’s immeasurable love through Christ did not dispute the guilt of mankind. God’s indescribable love through Christ faced sacrifice. It was not a sacrifice observed from a distance, but up close, involved and personal.

Between earth and heaven suspended, God’s compelling love is expressed through the birth of Christ Jesus our LORD. God reached out – far out – to express His compelling love. Our deepest evidence of God’s love for us is found within Christ’s birth, Emmanuel – God is with us!!

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39, NIV.


“All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to Him in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: be reconciled to God. God made Christ who had no sin to take on sin for us, so that in Christ we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:18-21