Speaking of beautiful verses, I wept today, like I always do, when I heard my very favorite Christmas song, “O Holy Night.” The combination of its gorgeous lyrics and affective melody seep into the hardened parts of my heart in a way that only music can.

I closed my eyes (only for a second since I was driving) and sang the words in my very ugly voice as a prayer to the heavens. I thought about all those times I played the song on our upright piano in the family room–banging on the keys as a form of meditation to tune out my parents’ fighting, to console my scared fourth-grade self, to invoke God’s peace on a ruptured family.

This song had to be inspired by God himself, even though it was written by poet Placide Cappeau de Roquemaure (yes, he’s French and sold wine…ah, maybe it was the spirits) and composed by Adolphe Charles Adams (Placide’s musician buddy) because whenever I hear it I immediately feel love. Especially when I get to the seventh line:

“Fall on your knees, O hear the angels voices!
O night divine, O night when Christ was born!
O night, O holy night, O night divine!”

Those three lines are what Christmas is to me.