Till he appeared and the soul felt its worth

I have to admit, I’ve found Christmas a little overwhelming this year.

By mid-December, I felt both drained and stuffed by the deluge of parties, cookies, white elephant gift exchanges, and more cookies.

Do I sound like a scrooge?

Hang with me for a minute.

For most of December, I’ve been ready to call it quits and start 2018 fresh, with empty parking lots and new resolutions, nothing to plan or anticipate but a clean slate and clean calendar. I’ve been coasting through the season holding my breath for January.

But just in time for Christmas day, I heard the lyrics of “O Holy Night”—and was reminded of why we anticipate this time of year with celebration, and why we put a pause on normalcy for a few weeks every year.

Till he appeared and the soul felt its worth.

In that short phrase, I was blessedly reminded of what exactly this holiday is all about: the miraculous, game-changing arrival of Jesus.

I was reminded that before the birth of Jesus Christ, humanity didn’t have a human model of the divine. Followers of the Jewish tradition would have known that they were “made in God’s image”*….but would they have known that God would appear on Earth, to live, eat, work, and eventually die among them?

Would they have known that they were so valuable to their Creator that He would choose to be born as an infant—and experience the difficulty, trial, and pain of being human?

When Jesus appeared, the soul felt its worth. For the first time, we were shown that we are not only worth deep, redemptive love, but worth being given power, authority, and the Spirit of God. We were worth being given a Savior.

So, I’m renewing my vows to love Christmas…to enjoy the gifts, the sweets, even the glittering commercial chaos, by reminding myself of the why. Because it’s a celebration of the proof that we as humans are in fact worthy to be saved, and worthy of lives that are continually abundant, joyful, peace-filled, and divine. 

*Genesis 1:27