What is glory? My neighbor surprised me with this question over lunch a few days before Christmas. The air had been full of Christmas carols, and the carols had been full of “glory”. had been singing about glory since childhood and had never thought to ask this question. In this season it is mostly about the angels with the shepherds on the hillside singing:
. “Glory to the newborn King.”
“Glory to God, all glory in the highest.”
But what is glory? Glory is not just a Christmas word. I skimmed through the hymnal and discovered that we sing about glory in many seasons and times of life.
“Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost”
“All glory be to God on high and thanks to him forever”
Glory is associated with light. I asked my family as we gathered for Christmas dinner about their associations with the word “glory”. One nephew said that scientists use the word to describe light that shines out of something, like an aura or halo. Our hymns associate glory and light.
“When we walk with the Lord in the light of his Word, what a glory he sheds on our way.
“The angel of the Lord came down and glory shone around.”
Turn your eyes upon Jesus…the things of earth will grown strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.”
The word “glory: does not belong exclusively to Christians. The dictionary defines glory as “great honor and admiration won by doing something admirable or valuable” and as “the condition of highest achievement.” Google describes glory as “high renown, praise and honor obtained by notable achievements.” Glory has to do with the very best. But glory can be used as casually as when we describe a day as “glorious” meaning that days don’t get much better than this
So what are we saying when we sing about glory in our Christmas carols? We are saying that there is something in this part of our faith that deserves our highest praise. What God has done in coming to live among us in human form in Jesus as a gift of God’s love is- well – glorious. Our response is praise worship that is best expressed by the word glory. The word becomes a noun, and adjective,a verb – an all-purpose word that spills out in all directions to express joy, praise and thanksgiving as we respond to the wonder of God’s “love come down at Christmas”.
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