{"id":4258,"date":"2024-12-10T08:54:04","date_gmt":"2024-12-10T13:54:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=4258"},"modified":"2024-12-10T08:54:04","modified_gmt":"2024-12-10T13:54:04","slug":"o-holy-night-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/10\/o-holy-night-2\/","title":{"rendered":"O Holy Night"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>

How can we know what something is worth?

Two recent auctions have challenged our capacity to answer that question.

Last month, cryptocurrency businessman Justin Sun outbid six rivals at a Sotheby\u2019s auction to purchase a conceptual piece created by the Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan.

We\u2019re not talking about a bronze sculpture or an oil painting on canvas. Sun paid $6.2 million for Cattelan\u2019s masterpiece \u2013 a ripe banana duct-taped to the wall. A week later, the 34-year-old entrepreneur held a press conference in Hong Kong, during which he ate the banana. \u201cIt\u2019s really quite good,\u201d he observed, obviously committed to getting his money\u2019s worth.\u00a0

Then last Saturday, at a Heritage Auction in Dallas, an unidentified individual bid the staggering sum of $28 million to take home one of the four pairs of ruby slippers known to have been worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz<\/em>.

Those slippers have quite a backstory. For years they were the prime attraction at the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, the childhood home of the actress. In 2005, Terry Jon Martin \u2013 a small-time crook trying to turn his life around \u2013 decided he would pull one last job.

He couldn\u2019t resist the opportunity to steal those famous slippers. After all, they were covered with priceless rubies. So one night he sneaked into the museum, smashed the display case, grabbed the shoes, and ran.

Only then did Martin realize they were covered not with gemstones but cheap red sequins. He could immediately relate to the frustration of the Wicked Witch of the West.

The slippers vanished for more than a decade. The FBI, hot on the trail of what authorities called \u201cone of the most recognizable pieces of memorabilia in American film history,\u201d received thousands of tips. The recovery was finally made by means of a sting operation in 2018.\u00a0

Until last weekend, no one dreamed that anybody thought the slippers would fetch $28 million. But the actual worth of something \u2013 especially in the worlds of art and sports memorabilia \u2013 is clearly a flexible concept.

Intriguingly, the notion of \u201cworth\u201d appears in one of the Christmas season\u2019s most cherished solo numbers. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0

The 19th<\/sup> century French composer Adolphe Charles Adam wrote more than fifty ballets and operas. Most are unremembered.\u00a0But no one looks past Adam\u2019s O Holy Night.<\/em>\u00a0In France it\u2019s known simply as Cantique de Noel<\/em>, or the Christmas Song.

An American pastor, John S. Dwight, wrote the English words that stir millions of people every December:

O holy night, the stars are brightly shining; it is the night of our dear Savior’s birth<\/em>
Long lay the world in sin and error pining, ’til He appeared and the soul felt its worth<\/em>
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.<\/em>

Fall on your knees!\u00a0 O hear the angel voices. O night divine, O night when Christ was born<\/em>
O night divine, O night, O night divine!<\/em>

Truly He taught us to love one another; His law is love and His gospel is peace.<\/em>
Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother; and in His name all oppression shall cease.<\/em>
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we, let all within us praise His holy name.<\/em>

Christ is the Lord! O praise His Name forever! His power and glory evermore proclaim.<\/em>
O night divine, O night, O night divine!<\/em>

Contemporary artists from Placido Domingo to Celine Dion have risen to the challenge of the emotional rises and falls of Adam\u2019s timeless song. Here is Carrie Underwood\u2019s<\/a> recent take.\u00a0

Let\u2019s go back to the second line of the first verse: \u201cLong lay the world in sin and error pining, \u2018til He appeared and the soul felt its worth.\u201d

The songwriter makes a direct connection between the Incarnation \u2013 God\u2019s radical strategy of walking onto the stage of human history as one of us \u2013 and the dawning realization that our lives, our souls, must be worth more to God than we can possibly imagine.

The late radio personality Paul Harvey was fond of telling a story about a gruff farmer.

Christmas had never made sense to him \u2013 especially the classic storyline that God had chosen to become human. Really?\u00a0What would ever induce the Creator of the universe to pull a stunt like that?

On a bitterly cold December evening he was getting ready for bed when he heard an irregular thumping sound against the storm door of his kitchen. It was birds.\u00a0Sparrows were trying to get into his house.

Sparrows can die on a cold, cold night, unless they find shelter.\u00a0These birds had been drawn by the apparent warmth of his house.

The farmer was touched.\u00a0He bundled up and trudged through the snow toward his barn.\u00a0He opened the barn door and beckoned the sparrows.\u00a0He turned on the lights.\u00a0But the sparrows, which had scattered when he opened the door to leave his house, hid in the darkness.\u00a0

\u201cThey\u2019re afraid of me,\u201d he realized.\u00a0What could he do to earn their trust?

He laid down a trail of cracker crumbs. None of the birds came toward the barn. He came in behind them, gently flapping his arms. \u201cFly inside and be safe!\u201d he urged them.\u00a0But they took off in alarm.

It quickly became clear that this was a hopeless task.\u00a0 To the sparrows, his motives were impossible to discern.\u00a0To them he was nothing but a giant, alien creature, one who was speaking words they could not understand, and making motions that looked like threats.

\u201cIf only I could be a sparrow,\u201d he sighed.\u00a0\u201cJust for a few moments.\u00a0I could assure them that I mean them no harm, and show them where they can be safe.\u201d

And in that same moment it dawned on him:\u00a0That was the very thing God had done.\u00a0

The Creator went to the extreme of becoming one of his creatures.\u00a0So he could speak clearly to us.\u00a0So there would be no misunderstanding.

Because he thought we were eternally worth<\/u><\/em> it. \u00a0

And what can we do in response?

Fall on your knees. O hear the angel voices.<\/em>
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here How can we know what something is worth? Two recent auctions have challenged our capacity to answer that question. Last month, cryptocurrency businessman Justin Sun outbid six rivals at a Sotheby\u2019s auction to purchase a conceptual piece created by the Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan. We\u2019re not talking about a bronze sculpture… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4259,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[9,23],"class_list":["post-4258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-christmas-carols","tag-incarnation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4258"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4260,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4258\/revisions\/4260"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}