Last week, Susan and I had the pleasure of attending an on-campus carol-sing with John Witvliet, senior scholar and program advisor for missional initiatives and professor of theology, worship and the arts at Belmont. John gathered Christmas songs from across time and space that exemplified our SOUL Framework–and it was powerful to sing them together.
When we reached O Holy Night, I was transported back to the church pews of my childhood, where I would listen to my mom sing that song every year on Christmas Eve. Each Christmas, a different lyric seems to leap off the page. This year it was: “and the soul felt its worth.”
Perhaps it’s because, at Belmont, we’ve been intentionally talking about the soul for nearly two years. Through the lens of 3 John 1:2, where the apostle John says, “Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul thrives,” we invite those at Belmont and beyond to engage their souls in the pursuit of wisdom–not as the check of a box, but as a daily habit of heart.
Being Human in Chaos
December, though, can feel like the exact opposite. Paying attention to such an intangible thing as the soul now, in these hectic days? Pausing to do so hardly feels like a priority. But perhaps it is exactly what God intended when he sent Christ–in the chaos of political unrest into a town with no extra room–to meet us.
This Christ did not come armored for battle, but clothed in humility, swaddled in a manger. Emmanuel (God with us) is more than just a comforting word; it is a declaration of God’s love for humanity. God doesn’t hold humanity at a safe distance, or even simply draw near. God becomes one of us.
This is why the soul feels its worth at Christmas: because at the Incarnation, the soul is deemed worthy of inhabitation by God himself. In a season that tends to measure its worth by gifts, achievements and appearances, the Incarnation speaks a staggering truth–that our value is not found in our possessions or even in ourselves, but in a God who created us in his image and became human that we may be united with God again.
And the wonder of Emmanuel is that he never leaves or forsakes us. The baby in the manger grows to walk, heal, welcome and teach the way of the Kingdom. He goes to the cross, rises from the dead and ascends to heaven. He sends his Holy Spirit to comfort and guide us. And he promises to come again. This story means our soul doesn’t just feel its worth at Christmas, but that in every hurried day, in every weary day, in every joyous day and in every ordinary day, our souls are assured of their worth by the God who created us.
Tending to the Soul Through Gratitude and Hospitality
So how does one faithfully tend to the soul in the middle of the season’s noise? All was not calm when Christ came, and it doesn’t need to be for us to meet Christ this Christmas season, either.
Scripture and psychology agree that our lives and the lives of the people around us are better when we offer gratitude daily for the gifts in and around us. In a season where we all too easily focus on perceived lack (not enough time, not enough money, not enough friends), the best thing we can do is offer gratitude–whether the objects of our thankfulness spring easily to the surface or take a bit of digging.
This kind of practice changes us at a deep level, and it changes the people around us. When we offer gratitude–and when we do it with joy–we tap into God’s design for others’ souls and ours.
The memory of Christ’s coming is also an invitation to hospitality. If we fall into the performance of Christmas, we can reduce hospitality to making meals and giving gifts–and these can be precious expressions of hospitality. But the Incarnation gives us a deeper example of hospitality.
We don’t attend Christmas gatherings for the food or the gifts (though they are certainly perks!). We come into the presence of others in hopes that we might get a taste of true friendship, modeled in Christ’s friendship with us. When we take the opportunity to go beyond the surface of our scheduled interactions, we see others and ourselves in new ways–in the light of Christ.
The soul felt its worth. Nearly two centuries after those words were written, they still speak with piercing clarity. We do not create our worth. Rather, it is inextricable from who we are–and who others are because of Christ. May beholding that reality anew carry us into Christmas joy this season.