Dusty Corners, Shoveling Snow and a Christmas Revelation

So, if you can't tell, I think a lot. :) I have a slew of topics I have been pondering for years and years. I've learned that if I keep these questions in the back of my mind, often the answer will jump out at me at the most random times.

Case in point...

I love Christmas as much as most of the world. It is a glorious time. It is a fun time

It seems to be the one time of year enough of us allow ourselves to display enough love to those around us that there is a noticeable difference in the world.

And that is precisely my question about Christmas. Why don't we do that all year long? Why don't we spend as much energy doing good for all others during the other 11 months of the year, as we do during the month of December? Why isn't it more acceptable to be open about our faith in Jesus Christ during the the other 11 months as it is in December?

I've pondered this for years now, maybe even the majority of my life. Mostly because I notice this problem in my own heart and I want it fixed.  Because I grew up in a "needy" family and some nice stuff was done for us at Christmastime, but we needed help all year.  I would find myself wondering if people were helping because they really wanted to or just because it was Christmas. Why just at Christmastime?

So I was cleaning the house the other day and whining to myself about how I clean the same messes every single day. I have corners of my house that I have never cleaned. Not because I am lazy, but because I spend all of my energy cleaning the day-to-day living messes; I never get to the dusty corners.

This funny thought popped into my mind, "Cleaning the house while your children are still little is like shoveling snow while it is still snowing."

It seems pointless to shovel snow while it is still snowing right? It also feels pointless to clean a room, knowing that as soon as you move onto the next room, your children are going to mess up the room you just cleaned. (I will say, however, that I'm grateful to just have children, even if they do mess up the house. Their messes are evidence that they are there.)

I silently chuckled to myself, but then another thought popped into my mind, "What if you never cleaned because you thought it was useless?" My house would be 100 times messier. So, I keep plugging away at cleaning knowing that if I wasn't cleaning at all, my house would be in an unlivable state.

And then it happened. From out of nowhere came the Christmas connection...

"What if we stopped having Christmas?"

Ponder that one for a while. What I came up with, in a very teeny nutshell, is that the world would be in an unlivable state.Think about it.

Yes, maybe we do more good deeds for others in December. Maybe we talk more about Jesus Christ in December. Maybe our hearts are softer and more forgiving and more grateful during the month of December. Maybe we try to do more as a family and love more and make things more special.

But what if we never had a December? It would be like never cleaning the house, or never shoveling the driveway. The world would be in an unlivable state.

Maybe it is no coincidence that we start a new year the week after we celebrate the birth of our Savior. We just spent a month getting our hearts back where they needed to be.

We can start fresh with a renewed resolve to keep our hearts in the right place. And then, as human nature takes its toll throughout the year, Christmas will come again and we will realize it is time to get back to where we had wanted to be the year before and maybe this year, the resolve will last longer than it did before.

So on this Christmas night, after the gifts have been opened, the food has been eaten, the events of the day have come and gone...let us not finish with Christmas. As we pack away our Christmas decorations, let's not pack away our Christmas Spirit.

We can pack away Santa Claus, Jingle Bells and all of the twinkling lights. But let's keep Joy to the World, softer hearts toward those in need, the spirit of giving, fun family activities and believing in angels singing to shepherds. Let's keep the Wise Men and public programs where songs are sung about Jesus with no embarrassment. Let's keep peace on earth good will toward men.

“What is the spirit we feel at Christmastime?” asked Church President Thomas S. Monson in a 2009 Christmas devotional. “It is His spirit — the spirit of Christ."

 Along with his two counselors in the First Presidency, President Thomas S. Monson wrote, “There is no better time than this very Christmas season for all of us to rededicate ourselves to the principles taught by Jesus Christ. It is the time to love the Lord our God with all our heart and our neighbors as ourselves. This joyful season will bring to each of us a measure of happiness that corresponds to the degree in which we have turned our minds, feelings and actions to the spirit of Christmas. … Let [this] be a time of forgetting self and finding time for others. Let it be a time for discarding the meaningless and for stressing true values. Let it be a time of peace because we have found peace in His teachings. We testify of the living reality of our Lord and Savior, even Jesus Christ. He is indeed ‘the way, the truth, and the life’ (John 14:6).”

Peace is found at Christmastime and it can be carried with us throughout the year. Even if we each just did one more nice thing next year than we did this year...can you imagine the good we can do? Can you imagine the peace we can bring to this earth if we keep trying and don't give up?



Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me. Peace comes from one source...the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ.

I have hopes for the coming year. But even in those hopes, I am aware of my weaknesses and flaws. I will make mistakes. I will have to pick myself up and start all over again and again and probably again and again. But I know this (because I'm learning from experience)...

As the Inn Keeper might have sung in describing how he overcame his decision to not let Joseph and Mary have a room that first Christmas night...

"He never would condem me,

I did that all on my own.

he offers His forgiveness

and ever since then, I've known,

He lets us choose 

each hour of each day

if we'll let Him in to stay.

Let Him in

He forgives. He guides. He listens. He understands. He builds. He saves. He atones. He advocates. He lives. He LOVES.

He's even with you when you are cleaning your house. Maybe I can work harder at getting to some of those dusty corners this year. Maybe. :)

Jesus is the reason for the Christmas season - and the reason why we can have and enjoy every other season as well.

What Shall We Give?

The following movie, as well as the three movies following this post, made me stop and think..."What shall I give?"

I hope they can inspire someone else as well.

Drop the "mas" of the word Christmas and what do we have? Christ - The Spirit of Christ is love. Our lives can be so much more about Him in all that we do every day of the year.

I think we feel differently at Christmas because, as a collective whole, we allow ourselves to be more giving, more forgiving, more caring and more loving at this time of year. Love is a powerful thing. I believe it quite possibly is an actual, tangible power. I believe that if our spiritual eyes were opened, we would be amazed at the healing, uplifting, inspiring, cheering, building, creating, forgiving power of love.

So at Christmastime when so many of us are concentrating on this power, miracles take place. There is strength in numbers. Love is more powerful in numbers. Why did our Savior say so often, "Love one another" ?

What shall we give? Anything that has to do with loving, forgiving, caring or giving. These are all gifts fit for a King - THE King.

Wise Men Still Seek Him

The Spirit of Christmas

Christmas in the Vinyard

I Needed It Again

This is from my blog last year. I wrote then that on the day of that post, I needed to hear the words of the song. I'm feeling that same way today. It is so important for me to remember Who is truly in charge and that He has everything under control. Someday, I will kneel before Him...

 

 I had sort of decided to save this Christmas song until closer to Christmas but I needed these words today so maybe someone else might need them too.  Oh the peace and joy that fills me when I truly listen with my heart to the message of this song. 

 Listen to the song, or read the words as many times as necessary until the message truly touches your heart.

 

The lyrics I've typed do not exactly match the lyrics that are sung but everyone has their own version of this song. I think it speaks for itself so I'm not going to muck it up with a lot of my ramblings.

O Holy Night! The stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of OUR dear Savior's birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining.
Till He appeared and the Soul felt its worth. 

(I needed those words today)

 
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices!
O night divine, Oh night when Christ was born;
O night divine , O night, O night divine!


Led by the light of faith serenely beaming,
With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand.
O'er the world a star is sweetly gleaming,
Now come the wisemen from out of the Orient land.
The King of kings lay thus lowly manger;
In all our trials born to be our FRIEND.
He knows our need, our weakness is no stranger, (I needed those two lines today too)
Behold your King! Before him lowly bend!


Truly He taught us to love one another,
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains he shall break, for the slave is our brother.
And in his name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
With all within us we praise His holy name.
Christ is the Lord! Then ever, 

ever praise we,
His power and glory ever more proclaim!
His power and glory ever more proclaim!

God is absolutely not dead nor doth He sleep!

I have always loved the Christmas hymn "I Heard the Bells On Christmas Day" because I knew the story behind the lyrics...or, rather, I thought I knew the story. Learning the whole story makes the touching lyrics even more powerful.  They are a testament to the healing that can be brought only by our Savior's perfect love.

Here is the story...

In July of 1861, three months after the Civil War had just begun, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was living with his family in Massachusetts. Because of the summer's heat, Henry's wife Fanny, decided to shorten her seven-year-old daughter's long ringlets.

 As many mothers have done through the years, she wanted to preserve her daughter Edie's childhood ringlets. She heated some wax in order to seal the envelope in which the locks had been placed. Without noticing, some of the hot wax fell upon her long, heavy skirts just as a summer breeze came rushing through the window. The smoldering flames grew. Fanny ran from the room to protect her daughter. Henry threw himself onto his wife trying to put out the fire, burning his face, arms and hands.

Fanny Longfellow died the next day. Henry's heart broke.

Later that same tragic year, at Christmas he wrote, "How inexpressibly sad are all holidays." A year after her death, he wrote, "I can make no record of these days. Better leave them wrapped in silence. Perhaps someday God will give me peace." The following Christmas, 1862, Longfellow wrote: "'A merry Christmas' say the children, but that is no more for me." For two years, his heart ached for his dear wife.

Around Christmas time in 1863, Henry was informed that his son, Lieutenant Charles Longfellow, was severely wounded in battle. His beloved wife was gone. His son was lost. Longfellow had found solace in his continued writings but by this time his grief was so great that he didn't have any words to write in his journal for the Christmas of 1863. When a writer has no more words to write, one can know the writer's heart is paralyzed with grief.

But then on Christmas Day 1864, three years after Fanny's death and a year after the tragic news of his son's injuries, and in Henry's continued grief, he heard the church bells ringing through the town. Somehow, through the simple sound of the Christmas bells, Henry's wounded heart awoke and a ray of hope inspired him to write a poem entitled "Christmas Bells". His poem would later be put to music and become one of Christendom's most beloved Christmas Carols, "I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day".

This is not just a poem or a song - these are the honest words coming directly from Longfellow's heart...

A Longfellow Christmas - Mormon Tabernacle Choir (hear a beautiful rendition of this song by clicking on this link.

Christmas Bells

(The poem has some stanzas not included in the song 

but they help us see what his world was like and why he felt the way he did)

"I heard the bells on Christmas Day

Their old familiar carols play,

And wild and sweet

The words repeat

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,

The belfries of all Christendom

Had rolled along

The unbroken song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till, ringing, singing on its way,

The world revolved from night to day,

A voice, a chime

A chant sublime

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each black accursed mouth

The cannon thundered in the South,

And with the sound

The carols drowned

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent

The hearth-stones of a continent,

And made forlorn

The households born

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;

"There is no peace on earth," I said;

"For hate is strong,

And mocks the song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:

"God is not dead; nor doth he sleep!

The Wrong shall fail,

The Right prevail,

With peace on earth, good-will to men!"

I love the phrase, "Then pealed the bells more loud and deep..." In Longfellow's darkest grief, the bells would have had to be loud and they would have needed to pierce deeply into his wounded heart in order for these words to come forth.

My heart has been wounded before. Many times. Somehow, in the darkest moments, I have also heard those Christmas morning bells. They have "pealed more loud and deep" when I have needed them and they have awakened my heart to the truth that "GOD IS NOT DEAD, NOR DOTH HE SLEEP."

Maybe someone reading this has felt that same way before. I'm fairly certain we all have. It just happens to be part of this mortal life we have here. Like Longfellow, out of our darkest moments can come beautiful, glorious, eternal lessons. 

This can ONLY happen because out of our Savior's darkest moments came the most beautiful, the most glorious and the most eternal lesson of all...YOU ARE LOVED!

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

"For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved." John 3:16-17

I want to testify, along with Longfellow, and so many others...

GOD IS NOT DEAD! 

HE HAS NOT STOPPED TAKING CARE OF US. 

HE HAS NOT STOPPED COMMUNICATING WITH US. 

HE HAS NOT STOPPED LOVING US! 

HE IS REAL!!!


HE WILL RETURN!!

  Listen for those Christmas bells. Let them ring loud and deep in your heart. Let them testify of our Savior's complete understanding of your heart. Let Him heal you.

A Gift to the World

Click the links below to watch these beautiful and heart touching videos

An Angel Foretells Christ's Birth to Mary

Mary and Elisabeth Rejoice Together

Mary and Joseph Travel to Bethlehem

Shepherds Learn of the Birth of Christ

The Christ Child Is Presented at the Temple

The Wise Men Seek Jesus