Holy, Holy
When starting this article, I had to think about what holy actually meant. I don’t know about you, but when I think of holy, I think of Saints and other religious icons, so I looked up the definition of holy on Dictionary.com. It says “dedicated or consecrated to God or a religious purpose; scared.” Honestly, I was still confused.
The more I thought about it though, I remembered the song “Holy” by Nichole Nordeman, a song we use to listen to in the car all the time when we lived in Arkansas. I remember driving to school, mom in the driver’s seat and me in the backseat, singing this song (and now, looking at the lyrics, I got a ton of the lyrics wrong as a kid). After reading through, and partly singing the lyrics in my head, I came to understand the song a little more. Granted, this song does not really have any great mysterious meaning behind it. It’s more of a song for everyone to understand and connect with. Not only does it have sentimental value, it has a lot of meaning to me behind it as well. When I thought of this song a few weeks ago, I continually listened to it every day. I was trying to think of what to write about; trying to think of how we can strive to be holy, but the song got me thinking about how holy God is instead. How, because of God’s holiness, we are redeemed and saved from so many things. My favorite part of the song is, “how many deaths did I die before I was awakened to new life again?” It makes me think about how lucky we are to have a God so holy that believing in him gives us new life and all of our sins are washed away by the blood of His son, Jesus Christ. We are so lucky to have a Father as amazing and holy as God is. And I know, for me at least, I forget about that all the time. I forget that God IS holy and that we should strive to be like him. I get so bogged down in the day-to-day and the stress of school work, that I forget this tidbit of information.
After listening to this song every day for the last few weeks, it has been a good reminder for me to think about how holy God is and how we should strive to be like him in every way, but it is okay for us to mess up. Because God is holy and will love us anyway, even though we are horrible sinners. We are made new because of His holiness and His unconditional love for us.
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‘It makes me think about how lucky we are to have a God so holy that believing in him gives us new life…’ So much wisdom from the young!! Thanks, Katie, for reminding me of who God is and how very, very fortunate we have such a good, good God.
His holiness and unconditional love…what a redeeming combination!! Well said, Katie
I, too, felt intimidated by writing about the word holy. I’m so glad this topic gently forced us to examine our preconceived notions about holiness.
And isn’t it funny how music transports us?! Such a time machine.
Soooo grateful that God is holy so that I can be His kid.
“Holy” is a big concept, Katie. I pondered it a lot as well. I too, love Nicole Nordeman and this song. Can’t wait to watch the video.
My favorite sentence of yours was the same one the other Diane picked!
For me, one of the mind boggling things of God’s Holiness is that it is the ONLY attribute of God spoken of in the superlative in Scripture. God is Holy, Holy, Holy! The fact that it is listed three times means we REALLY need to pay attention to it; something I’m forever forgetting. Thank you for your thoughts Katie, love you!
Holy was probably the toughest topic to write about so far for me. I don’t think we’ll ever be able to fully grasp God’s holiness until we meet face to face.
Thanks for the reminder to walk through my day keeping my eyes on Him.
Katie,
I love your honesty!!! God’s holiness encompasses so much that it can be overwhelming despite how knowledgeable you are of the Bible. “how many deaths did I die before I was awakened to new life again?” Love this line of the song…pssst–we all got the lyrics wrong to our favorite songs as kids. Childlike innocence is to hear what we want to hear and make the song our own. That’s how God wants us to enter into his Holy presence…with childlike wonder so we are open for Him and the Holy Spirit to pour into us.
Denise