I love my Savior--our Savior. The Savior of the World. It means so much to say, "He lives," because he does, and is a part of our lives every day.
Where would I be without His love? I can take anything to Him.
Anything. My joys, my tears, my love, my mistakes, my worries, my fears... All of it. When I'm hurting, or worried, I feel peace. When my heart is filled with joy and love, I feel His rejoicing with me.
And I am always amazed he does the same for all of us, where ever we are, and whatever we are doing. His love for us is personal, and reaches every person where they are in deeply meaningful ways that only we individually understand because He knows us that well.
His birth--the gift of God's love to the earth--is meaningful beyond measure. Last year I started a personal tradition of reading the Four Gospels by December 25th. It's difficult to do, for sure, and there was more than one occasion when I was cooking dinner or goodies or food for a gathering that I'd listen to chapters on my computer while I was cooking, and other times when I would listen on my iPhone as I drove... And I finished. And how amazing it was, once again. It strengthens me and lifts me and helps me focus on the incredible meaning of this season.
Without Christ's birth, there could not have been the gifts of the Atonement and Resurrection. Without His birth, my pain would remain pain, and I wouldn't know the gift of complete peace in the midst of worry. And most definitely, I wouldn't know the hope of once again seeing and living forever with loved ones who have died before me.
(Told you my heart was full.)
At the end of the book of John, Christ is once again with the apostles, and was teaching them after his resurrection. He lovingly counseled with Peter to feed his sheep, and then in John 21:18 Jesus tells Peter, "...When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not."
At various times in my life I read that verse, and it has had different meanings to me, but mostly a personal meaning to gain the maturity it takes to set aside my own will and live according to His will. That is such a difficult thing. But through my life, as I've walked those paths where the Savior has taken me wither I wouldest not, I've always known His peace, and it is because of that peace that my heart is full.
I know it is because of the Savior that on all these journeys where I don't want to go, He can somehow turn that journey into a journey of growth and love and peace that knits my heart to His.
And so it is that His birth means so much--to me, and to the world, that each of us personally can know eternal love and peace, not just after we die, but right now in this life as we walk with Him on our life's path.
Amazing.
Merry Christmas to friends and family (cards are still coming... I ordered New Year's card's this year, knowing we wouldn't get them out in time). My love and best wishes to all of you this season and in the New Year.
No comments:
Post a Comment