Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord

Being that its just over a week until Christmas, my house is quite often filled with Christmas music. It brings us such joy to wander around the house, to be tidying, baking, wrapping gifts, or any other mundane thing, while singing a Christmas tune. And most often, we are singing some old hymn style song. O, Holy Night is still on repeat and is one of my most favorite songs of the season. As I was singing it though the word "holy" stuck. What exactly does it mean for us to say something is "holy"?

A fun fact about me, I LOVE studying the original language texts of the Bible. Its a joy to me to do a deep word study. Hebrew and Greek are just cool! So me being me, I decided to look at what holy means, specifically in Revelations 4:8 when the living creatures cry out in worship all day and night saying, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty, who was, and who is, and who is to come."

First step- dictionary definition. Holy (according to Merriam Webster): exalted or worthy of complete devotion as one perfect in goodness and righteousness. Devine.

Now in Greek: ἅγιος pronounced agios. Meaning sacred, and only used to describe God/Jesus.

God is Holy. Nothing else is worthy of our complete devotion or our sacred worship. There is no one else who is perfect in goodness and righteousness. Only God. And to emphasize that point, Holy is repeated 3 times in a row, so not only is God holy, He is holy, holy, holy. The significance of something being repeated 3 times in a row is that of completeness and truth. God is completely holy. Worthy of our awe. As we wander around this Christmas season singing the many tunes that speak of God's holiness, I hope the significance of that word isn't lost on you. That you are struck by the awe of God's absolute holiness and the fact He sent Jesus to earth, as a baby, for you. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty!