Underrated Christmas Lyric: O Holy Night
On the road to Tulsa for Thanksgiving, we were listening to Christmas music, because I'm not patient enough to wait an extra day. I listen to Christmas music whenever I want. But we were listening to Pentatonix sing O Holy Night in their usual uncanny perfection, and a lyric simultaneously struck both Hailee and me speechless.
“He appeared and the soul felt its worth.”
Let that sink in a little bit. Honestly, I could probably just end this post right here, because that line strikes such a strong statement, it can certainly hold its own. But, like any good blogger, I feel the need to add 6 or 800 words of my own to anything important. So let's unpack.
Before Jesus came to this earth as the humble Savior, all we had to go on was the promise of our soul's worth. The covenant with God that he treasured his people, but humans being fickle as we are, need evidence. And sometimes, promises can be forgotten. Certainly, the people of Israel knew their worth, at least in a simple head knowledge—history had shown it. But had they felt their worth? How do you quantify the worth of a soul, anyway?
God had a plan for exactly that.
In God's eyes, our soul is worth a pure sacrifice, the death of His Son, a spotless and precious lamb. It makes no since, for a dirty soul like mine. "In sin and error pining," but in God's eyes, there is so much more.
How much is a soul worth? To Jesus, everything. Think about that. When Jesus came down to this earth as a man to secure an inheritance for all of us for eternity, he knew exactly what the cost would be. God has known the worth of a man's soul from the beginning—he breathed life into that very soul.
When the prophets spoke of this Messiah who would rescue all men, they had no way of knowing just how much the soul would be worth. In fact, Jesus told his disciples plainly what the cost of our souls would be, and they couldn't fathom it. Because the truth is just that: unfathomable.
How much is the soul worth? The soul is worth God becoming a man named Jesus, overcoming temptation, suffering to death, even death on a cross, bearing the weight of all our mistakes, evils, and dirtiness. Everything that we might think takes the value from our soul. The pricetag on our soul is completely unreachable, except by one: God himself. Not a thing we do or say can tarnish that worth.
The day that Jesus stepped down onto this earth in the humblest form—a babe in a manger—was the day that the soul found out exactly how much it was worth: it was worth saving. In the most heinous of ways, the soul would be saved by the God who created it.
Don't forget that this Christmas. Don't forget that the manger was a way to the tomb, and the first steps of this blessed child were the first steps along a difficult road to prove the worth of a soul.
Does that give you a thrill of hope this Christmas? Because it should. Does your soul feel its worth?
