My appreciation for Christmas has grown significantly in preparation for tomorrow’s celebration. I have always loved Christmas but it has given me so much more to think about now that I am preparing to be away from my family for the holiday (first time besides serving a mission). It has challenged me to think more honestly about what Christmas means to me individually and to Mercedes and I as we prepare to get married. After a month of thinking, reading, and hurriedly arranging christmas gifts… I have overwhelmingly come to the conclusion that this is my favorite season of the year because of the hope it represents. To me, it represents hope for things to come in this life. Hope for miracles, forgiveness, relief, joy, and so many other amazing blessings.

Now I want to distinguish how the beginning and end of the Savior’s life give me similar but distinct types of hope. Easter is the season of resurrection and new life. I have always held a strong belief that when we die we will be resurrected and have the opportunity to live with our families again. Because Jesus died and was resurrected, we are all afforded this opportunity of resurrection and new life. It brings me hope for the life to come. To me that knowledge doesn’t necessarily bring me hope for the immediate future and for the time between now and the resurrection. In fact, I sometimes catch myself saying “it’ll all be okay in the end” but that is not the message Jesus Christ taught. He taught that “Men are that they might have Joy” without stipulation as to when that Joy will come. We may not experience Joy now but that does not mean we won’t experience it until the resurrection. That is why Christmas has become so meaningful to me. While at Easter we celebrate the resurrection, at Christmas we celebrate the birth of Christ, his mission, and the life that he lived on this earth. His message while on the earth can bring us hope for the lives that we are living right now. At least a part of the message of Christmas is that because Christ lived we can live. We can overcome hardships and difficulties, we can learn from mistakes and sins, and through it all we can experience lasting and indescribable Joy.

Think of what Jesus experienced while on the earth. He did not come to earth having lived in a body before, no matter how much he knew prior to his birth, when he arrived he was experiencing more intimately than ever what our lives are like while on the earth. He undoubtedly felt an overwhelming love and appreciation for humans and the human condition. He experienced Joy as his disciples followed him and as lazarus arose from the tomb. He hoped for a better life for those he ministered to. I believe he was filled with hope as he raised the dead, made the blind see, the lame walk, and fed thousands with a few loaves and a few fish. He laughed, and cried, and lived a life full of hope. At Christmas I celebrate the savior coming into a world of new experiences with a mission and purpose to save us all. I celebrate that… if he, with the pressure and weight of an end he knew could come, found ways to press forward with hope… that I, through him, might do the same.

In the Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 31:20 it says “ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of god and of all men”. It overwhelms me to think of the savior, steadfast in his mission, walking and living and breathing with “a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of god…. And of all men”. At his birth Shepherds left their sheep, wise men left their homes in far away lands, and concourses of angels came to see that Child born in Bethlehem because his birth brought hope to the world. When later he rose from the dead he completed his earthly mission and gave us hope of salvation and hope of a resurrection for ourselves. As we watched those momentous events prior to coming to earth we must have known that we would come live in the service of Christ to the poor, needy, lame, blind, and downtrodden of the world. We must have hoped that we could make the world a better place, that we could come into the world but not be of it, and that we could really achieve all that our Father in Heaven asked of us… because of Jesus Christ.

One final thought. Just as the wisemen and shepherds traveled to see the Christ child, how do we figuratively travel to him this Christmas season? How can we come closer to the savior? How can we emulate who he was and give hope to others in our lives? At Christmas we celebrate the birth of a savior but with that we celebrate the lives that we have to live and the good that we have to give because of him. We celebrate with hope the time we have on the earth. We have so much more to give him and so much more to do while on this earth. Christmas should be a time of renewing and refreshing our efforts to light the world and fill it with a perfect brightness of hope. It should be a time of reflection on our own personal nativity. You and I may not have been born in a manger or been worshiped by wise men but because of Christ’s example while on the earth we can heal the sick, comfort the weary, and lift up the hands that hang down. We can “chase darkness from among [us]”. 

As always I would love to hear thoughts, comments, and suggestions. I hope this can prompt some thought or discussion somewhere of the purpose of Christmas and perspectives we may not have previously heard. My thoughts are always jumbled and the grammar and punctuation are not meant to be perfect but hopefully it reads clearly enough to allow thoughts to form in your minds of the spirit this Christmas brings. Merry Christmas!

“Fear not: for I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of david a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord”