About the Song

Unlike many of my Christmas songs, this one started singing in my head after Christmas, while taking the tree down instead of putting it up.

Taking the tree down is such a tedious task. (If anyone out there loves to do it, I will have two available for you in January.) As I removed ornament after ornament, I came across the one pictured at the top of the page–a present from a friend way back in 2002. Despite 21 years in and out of storage; despite 21 years of abuse by kids and cats and dogs and cats and accidents and cats (and oh did I mention cats?); even though it’s made of the most delicate frosted glass… there it was. Still intact, waiting to deliver its message to my heart:

Peace on Earth

A message so important to God that He sent multitudes of angels to join in the heavenly recitative:

Peace on Earth

Oh, how we need it. Could we ever, ever, ever hear it enough?

Peace on Earth

Our amazing Heavenly Father speaks to us in many different ways. As I took down the tree (and I shall not mention the date lest I give you a further example of the art of procrastination), in those moments of mind-wandering tedium, He spoke to me through an ornament I had seen hundreds of times. A melody using the repeated phrase “peace on earth” became my focus, a tedious chore was no longer tedious, and before I knew it the tree was safely packed away.

This song is set for solo voice, with optional violin or viola. The string parts are nearly identical, except for the final phrase where the viola part (as you hear in the recording) dipped too low for the violin. It can also be played on other C instruments, though you may need to adjust the phrasing and the register.