He is There

I have a confession to make, I am having a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit this year, me, the child in my home that got up at 2 a.m every year just to look at the magic of the lights sparkling off of wrapping paper and stocking full to bursting. Now just to be clear, it wasn't about what I was about to get, well maybe when I was little ;-), but it was about the magic of the moment and the joy and anticipation of Christmas. I've kept up that tradition except for a year of flu, Cambodia and a year when Santa had been up way too late for the week prior and needed sleep before wrapping. But just three years out of the very many I can remember is quite a record, even as I hit my twenties it was the one thing I didn't release of childhood. Christmas morning was the thing I looked forward to most as the Christmas season approached.I am so not feeling that they year, whether the realities of being out on my own, wanting to provide something special for my spouse or simply being distracted by work and school and just trying to keep up.

I'm so grateful for my ward's Christmas program last week, to see Mary and Joseph making their way to a cave in a hillside, to place their child in a manger of hay. And I realized that Christ would one day feel Joseph's inadequacy that he couldn't even provide a real bed for his wife and newborn baby, the very Son of God. Christ would feel the labor pains of his mother Mary and feel her concern as she stored up the prophecies of the work her son would one day do. In that scene Christ stood foremost as a divine being that gave up his divine courts above to come to earth to save our souls. Heavenly Father granted us a gift, He loved the earth enough to give one son to make the ultimate sacrifice, not just to die for mankind, but to live and experience pain for them as well. We are known, our Father sent a son who would face anguish for us because He never wanted us to be alone.

It is so easy to be distracted by all the stuff, things we think we need to do, traditions we think we need to establish, shopping that has to be done or .... insertt concern here. Today in testimony meeting a little boy stood at the microphone and said something that went right to my heart, "I love Jesus" that is what this season is all about, learning to love Jesus here as we loved him before coming to earth. It is remembering that Heavenly Father gave the first gift of Christmas, He made manifest his love for us first. And He gives us so many miracles to remind us He is there.