Friday, December 12, 2014

Christmas Reflections

This morning, I logged onto Facebook just as I do everyday, to aimlessly update myself on the happenings of my social media world. What I found instead was something much more spectacular; it was a video of "Angels We Have Heard on High" like I'd never heard or seen before!



If you aren't one of the already 165,000 people that have watched this video today since it was released this morning, you should definitely take the time to watch it; it's spectacular!

This video and its behind-the-scenes touched my heart and lit my spirit on fire! I was wrapped in God's love for me and realized, for the first time in my life, just what Christmas is truly about.

Christmas is about a small child born in humble circumstances, but foreordained to a grand mission: to be the Savior of the world! This small babe would grow to save every living soul on the earth. He would grow up to save....me

Why hadn't I known this before?

Well...I had known the purpose and reason for celebrating Christmas each year was to honor and remember Christ's birth. But, due to my experiences in the past few months, combined with watching this beautiful video, I realized that it is so much more.

I think back to when my son was born, almost 4 months ago. The joy that I felt as a new mother was incomprehensible and I basked in the newness of this perfect child that lay before me. Thousands of years before this event in my life, Mary--the mother of Jesus--looked down upon her perfect son with awe and wonder just as I looked upon my newborn son. My parents, friends, siblings, and the hospital staff rejoiced at my new addition, but these celebrations were nothing in comparison to the hosts of heaven rejoicing at the Savior's coming! Family and friends came to visit my new Baby Wesley in his first few weeks, but so many more people flocked to see the little babe, Jesus Christ, swaddled and laying in a manger.

Such similar stories, of a mother and her newborn son, and of family. 

So, as I reflected on all that has happened to my family these past few months. I realized that Christ's coming impacts not only me, but my growing family. I realized that the Christmas gift--the Son of God to all mankind--directly affects my happiness and future:

Because Jesus came, 
because he lived--and died--for me,
my little family can live together again....for eternity.  

How had I missed that connection for so many years? How had I naïvely thought that Christmas was just a celebration of a humble babe who would grow into a perfect man? Christmas is a celebration of everyone, a celebration of the fact that Jesus provided us all with a second chance, with repentance and mercy and eternal life!

Christmas to me is realizing that Jesus Christ lived! He was born! These simple words were written and prophesied for years prior to his birth, and for thousands of years after!

Now, when the birth of Jesus Christ often sits in the shadow of Santa Clause and holiday commercialism, I hope that we can all take some personal time to shed some light on the real meaning of Christmas, and what that means for us in our individual lives.

Merry Christmas! 


To find out more about the real reason for the season, visit: www.mormon.org/christmas