Sunday, December 24, 2006
"At the focal point of all human history, a point illuminated by a new star in the heavens revealed for just such a purpose, probably no other mortal watched--none but a poor young carpenter, a beautiful virgin mother, and silent stabled animals who had not the power to utter
the sacredness they had seen. Shepherds would soon arrive and later, wise men from the East. Later yet the memory of that night would bring Santa Claus and Frosty and Rudolph--and all would be welcome. But first and forever there was just a little family, without toys or trees or
tinsel. With a baby--that's how Christmas began.
"It is for this baby that we shout in chorus: 'Hark! the herald angels sing Glory to the newborn King! . . . Mild he lays his glory by, Born that man no more may die; Born to raise the sons of earth, Born to give them second birth' (Hymns, no. 209)."
(Jeffrey R. Holland, "Without Ribbons and Bows," New Era, Dec. 1994, 6)
"It will take some practice, more than one holiday, to learn how to be touched by what's inside others. And giving freely and counting sacrifice as joy will take a while. But we could at least start this Christmas being a good receiver. We have the power to make others great gift-givers by what we notice. We can make any gift better by what we choose to see--and we can, by failing to notice, make any gift a failure. Gift giving takes a giver and a receiver. I hope we use
this theory not to criticize the gifts and giving that come our way this year, but to see how often our hearts are understood and how often gifts are given joyfully, even with sacrifice."
(Henry B. Eyring, "Giving with Joy," Liahona, Dec. 1996, 12)
"Many years ago I found myself as part of occupation troops in a foreign land just at the end of a terrible war. It was not long after we arrived in this country before we developed a great love and concern for the people we were there to watch over. This was especially true of the young people, the children. Many times we would find them scavenging in our garbage cans looking for food to keep themselves alive. This deeply touched us, and we wanted to make a more substantial contribution to them. We raised what money we could and found a local religious group that was willing to open an orphanage for them. We donated as much time as possible
to improve the facilities and provided them with the operating funds they needed.
"As Christmas approached, we sent letters home to our families asking that, instead of sending gifts to us, they send toys for the children in the orphanage. The response of our families was
overwhelming! Toys arrived daily from our homes.
"We found a tree suitable to use as a Christmas tree, but we had no traditional decorations for it. A lady taught us how to make little birds by folding square pieces of paper, and these became the major part of the decorations for the tree. The presents were wrapped mostly in discarded Stars and Stripes newspapers. I'll never forget Christmas Eve with those children. I am sure many of them had never seen a Christmas tree in their lives.
"We sang Christmas carols to them, but we weren't very good at this. They had been rehearsing for weeks so they could sing a song to us in English. It was not a Christmas carol, but it was beautiful. They sang, 'You Are My Sunshine.' We were deeply touched with the spirit of the children that Christmas Eve, especially as they opened the presents sent from our families. I suppose some of them had not had a toy in many, many years. This is a Christmas I'll never forget because we were learning the true meaning of this great holiday season. The greatest joy we can receive in life is giving--to bring into the life of someone else a little joy and happiness.
(L. Tom Perry, "A 'Sunshine' Christmas," Tambuli, Dec. 1990, 12)
"How can we give to the Lord? What shall we give to him? Every kind word to our own, every help given them, is as a gift to God, whose chief concern is the welfare of his children. Every gentle deed to our neighbor, every kindness to the poor and suffering, is a gift to the Lord, before whom all mankind are equal. Every conformity to the Lord's plan of salvation--and this is of first importance--is a direct gift to God, for thereby we fit ourselves more nearly for our divinely planned destiny."
(John A. Widtsoe, "The Gifts of Christmas," Ensign, Dec. 1972, 4)
I've got more if you want them.
And, P.S.,
The Nativity Story was very well done,
I thought, and so everyone should go see it. That only leaves... three more movies for me to see before the fourth.
P.P.S. The coolest thing about the new blogger is that I can post from the future. Yeah, I'm cool like that.
P. (cubed) S. Don't forget my plea for help.
End.
Labels: Holiday, Religion, Svithe
