Merry Christmas

Fear not: for, behold, 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. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."

I love the Christmas story. I think it has always been one of my favorite parts of the scriptures. The account of the sheperds herding their sheep, struck and terrified when the ultimate glory of angels appeared to them bringing the glorious news of the arrival of the Christ child. To think that the creator of heaven and earth, Jehovah, Yahweh, Elohim, the great I AM, who is and was and is to come, humbled himself and came as we all do, in the body of a weak and fragile baby. 

I don't think people understand what it would be for divinity and eternity to place themselves in the body of sin and mortality. We are not divine therefore our understanding of it is limited. But it is one of the most beautiful acts, the beginning of the abolishment of sin. Before Christ could sacrifice himself, he needed to be born in human flesh. With skin that felt cold, that brought pain and cries of hunger. I am sure he was unlike a normal child, one without fear of the world he came to save. But he felt as we felt. That is a glorious understanding.

Jesus was most likely not born in december let alone on the 25th exactly. The Christmas holiday was adopted over a pagan feast day by a Christian roman emperor over one thousand years ago. But it doesn't matter how commercialized or paginated or idolized the Christmas season is by most people. Because that is not why I celebrate it. It is a remembrance, an honor for the day God became a baby, laid in the arms of a righteous teenage girl and her husband. 

How terrified Mary must have been faced with the responsibility of bringing the savior of her sins up as a man to fulfill the purpose. But she must have felt peace, submitting her complete and utter will to the Lord. I cannot fathom the strength and courage that took. But I thank her every day for her answer, "let it be to me as you have said, I am the Lord's servant." 

I am thankful for the blessings in my life, and I look forward to spending future years with my children gathered around as Justin and I tell them the day that God came as a baby just for you and me.