This Christmas Season I have been on a quest. I really wanted to appreciate Christmas for what it is--the celebration of the birth of Christ. I love the presents and traditions. I think they're necessary and contribute to the aura of a fun exciting Christmas. But, I'm sure like a lot of you, I wanted to try to focus on the spirituality of the meaning behind the season.
So I read my scriptures. Prayed. The little things. I felt good. But to be honest, I hadn't done much at all. I think I was complacent. It's so easy to be that way and so hard to recognize when I am. But still, I felt good.
Soon I would feel even better. My mom is the Relief Society President in her ward and for the month of December/Christmas she had a Christmas Advent Calendar printed up for each sister. I was blessed to get one. I say blessed because it truly was a blessing. It might seem insignificant, but this Advent Calendar changed my perspective on Christmas.
Each day held a challenge or assignment, a quote and a hymn. All of them revolved around Christ and the Christmas Season. I promised myself I would follow it--an easy way to achieve my goal of trying to be spiritual and not materialistic.
But what pearls! What wonderful and mind-opening quotes!
One that really touched me was on charity. Honestly, I've never
really understood it. Yes, the quick answer is The Pure Love of Christ. But what does
that mean?:
"Charity is accepting someone's differences, weaknesses, and shortcomings; having patience with someone who has let us down; or resisting the impulse to become offended when someone doesn't handle something the way we might have hoped. Charity is refusing to take advantage of another's weakness and being willing to forgive someone who has hurt us. Charity is expecting the best of each other." --Marvin J. Ashton
So that's what charity is! Thank heavens for latter-day prophets and apostles! Charity is love, but oh-so much more detailed than simply loving or serving someone.
Thinking of Christ not just at Christmas:
"Thoughts of Jesus. . . (should) be far more frequent and much more constant in all times and seasons of our lives. How often do we think of the Savior? How deeply and how gratefully and how adoringly do we reflect on his life? How central to our lives do we know him to be?" --Howard W. Hunter
That one certainly knocked me down a peg or two. Sure, making the effort to be more spiritual at Christmas is great. But it's not enough. I should be making the effort all year long.
And this was the kicker. The quote that illuminated the light bulb in my heart and mind:
"Each of us is a partaker of the experience called death. None escapes. Were we to remain unrescued, lost would be paradise sought. Lost would be family loved. Lost would be friends remembered. Realizing this truth, we begin to appreciate the supreme joy which accompanied the birth of the Savior of the world
. How glorious the pronouncement of the angel: 'Behold a virgin shall bring forth a son and thou shalt call his name JESUS for he shall save his people from their sins.'" --President Thomas S. Monson
Wow. Suddenly, everything just clicked for me. Before, my thoughts of Christ were simple. He was a baby. We celebrate his birth. He came to the earth. He was the divine made flesh.
I've been missing the big picture.
He was born a Savior. A baby, too. But first a Savior. He was destined to die for me. That's why the shepherds and wise men wept over and praised him. Not just because he was the Son of God. But because they were beholding their Savior-- sent to pay and die for their sins. It is a bittersweet joy. Such gratitude and awe for Heavenly Father and Christ's willingness for Him to come and save mankind. But if I had been a shepherd there, what guilt and sorrow I would have felt! To kneel there and behold the baby that would die for me because he loved me. My Savior.
Only now have I finally started to imagine the reverence and overwhelming love that must have pervaded that lowly stable in Bethlehem. I wish I were a better writer and could really convey the enlightenment I found. But that's what I love about the gospel. It is so personal and the spirit speaks individually to each of us in ways that maybe only we can comprehend.
"O Holy Night" just became my favorite Christmas Carol this year because the lyrics convey this awe over the Savior's birth:
O holy night, the stars are brightly shining;
It is the night of the dear Savior's birth!
Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope, the weary soul rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees, O hear the angel voices!
O night divine, O night when Christ was born!
O night, O holy night, O night divine!
How grateful I am for the gospel of Christ. How grateful I am for this season and for each day of my life to celebrate my Savior's birth and the atoning sacrifice He made for me. Because He died for me I am found and can live forever with my family. "Because of our Savior's Atonement, in death's darkness there is no sting" (Robert D. Hales). I know my Savior lives. I know He will come again. James E. Faust prophesied: "I testify that the Savior will come again and that at His second coming some will say. . . 'What are these wounds in thine hands and in thy feet?' He will show the wounds in His hands, wrist, and feet and they will ask when and where He received these wounds. He will answer, 'I am Jesus that was crucified. I am the Son of God.'"
How grateful I am for that tiny baby for He is my Savior.
