A night divine, indeed.

"O holy night, the stars are brightly shining

It is the night of the dear Savior's birth.

Long lay the world, in sin and error pining

Til He appeared and the soul felt its worth.

A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices

For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn

Fall on your knees! Oh hear the angel voices!

O night divine

O night when Christ was born

O night, o holy night, o night divine."

'Tis the season - the wreaths are up, the snow has (kind of) fallen, Santa's holding screaming children at the mall, and radio stations everywhere are blaring Christmas songs back to back to back. While this constant assault of Christmas music is the dread of music, it's one of my favorite parts of the holiday season. There are so many Christmas songs to love, and I frequently find myself declaring a new favorite every time the radio DJ switches tunes. 

This one though. It keeps popping up in my life and every time I find myself almost crying as I try to explain to people how much I love it. But here, you guys can't see if I'm crying or not. So I figured I'd try to pass on some of my excitement and Christmas joy and such. Since it's Christmas Eve and I feel like I haven't posted in forever.

So, to start at the beginning: O holy night - It's a HOLY night. All that reason for the season stuff that everyone preaches but no one really listens to. It's not just Christmas. Tonight is a holy night. The stars are brightly shining - I don't know where y'all are from, but down here in the Tiptonian boondocks around Christmastime, the stars are unbelievable. The cold makes the air clearer and on a cloudless night the view can be absolutely breathtaking. Now tonight, go look at those stars and think, those are the same stars that were shining the night Jesus was born. The very same ones the shepherds would've been watching as the traveled and everything. It's awesome. It is the night of the dear Savior's birth - again, with the night thing. Tonight. But I'm more intrigued by the phrase "the dear Savior"...someone so powerful and mighty, come to redeem humanity. But we don't speak of him in terms of awe and fear (not to say there's no respect) but rather in terms of endearment. Because when it came down to it, He was just a helpless, poor little baby. 

Long lay the world in sin and error pining - The world didn't just begin existing at Jesus' birth, although I often catch myself thinking that since that's when we start numbering years. The world was there, and it was full of sin and error (bad stuff). Pining, wasting away in all the awfulness...Til He appeared - and then this baby Jesus comes along and changes everything. And the soul felt its worth - our souls, the very essence of our being, didn't know their worth before He came. We were nothing (and are nothing) without Him.

All it took was A thrill of hope - A thrill. Not a spark or a hint or pinch of hope, but a thrill. Like looking into the eyes of a loved one or dropping down the first hill of a roller coaster or sky diving. Only a million times better. Because it's the thrill of the core of your very existence recognizing its purpose. Because it's Jesus. The weary world rejoices - and what a weary world we live in today. All the tragedy and sorrow and hurting, not just recently but always. There are people who don't feel joy at the Christmas season. There are people who don't feel joy ever. And two thousand years ago, there were all those weary people pining in sin and error. But at the birth of Christ the weary world REJOICED. For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn - Better things are coming. Tomorrow is a new day. The night of Jesus' birth was followed by a morning, a new day, a new age for mankind. And we're living in that glorious morn right now.

Fall on your knees! - Honestly if you haven't done that by now I don't know what else to say to you. It's such a powerful statement to put in the middle of a song like that. Rejoice, be glad, but be reverent - this is the savior of the world! I'm just so overcome by the image, the absolute surrender, of falling on your knees and just worshiping. Oh hear the angel voices - I don't even know which way to go with this. Right now, I'm feeling the fact that angels, who are supposed to be like mighty warriors, are going around spreading news of joy and singing praise to God. That's got to be the most perfect praise ever sung.

O night divine - Let me just remind everyone that the definition of divine is "Of, from, or like God". This night is divine...not like a bad retro movie star (think simply diviiiiine) but like the actual night of God himself. This is HIS time. It's the most serious night of the year and yet the most joyous. It's a wonderful paradox.

I don't know if you understand now. I don't even know if anyone will get the whole way through this. But that's my Christmas rant for the year. Have a blessed and wonderful Christmas and in the event that I'm too lazy to blog this week, a fantastic New Year. 

God bless<3