Peaceful Moment to Contemplate

With all of that to come, though, I think it’s appropriate this time of year to just think about that baby in the manger. Don’t be too overwhelmed or occupied with what is to come; just think about that little baby. Take a quiet, peaceful moment to ponder the beginning of His life—the culmination of heavenly prophecy but the earthly beginning for Him.

The Holy Night, by Carl Heinrich Bloch

Take time to relax, be at peace, and see this little child in your mind. Do not be too concerned or overwhelmed with what is coming in His life or in yours. Instead, take a peaceful moment to contemplate perhaps the most serene moment in the history of the world—when all of heaven rejoiced with the message “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:14)....

I hope you will take time this Christmas season to sit for a few quiet moments and let the Savior’s Spirit warm you and reassure you of the worthiness of your service, of your offering, of your life. Sit quietly with that little baby and come away spiritually strengthened and better prepared for all that is going to come later. Let that moment be one of rest and refreshing and reassurance and renewal.

Elder D. Todd Christofferson

• pg 30-31DECEMBER 2015
• BE AT PEACE

Greatest Manifestations

 Thus, the birth, life, and atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ are the greatest manifestations of God’s love for His children. 

• OCTOBER 2011
• LEHI’S DREAM: HOLDING FAST TO THE ROD

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Lehi’s Dream: Holding Fast to the Rod

By Elder David A. Bednar

Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

Come Unto Christ

What can we learn from the shepherds, Simeon, Anna, and the Wise Men, all of whom were favored to come and see the Christ child with their own eyes? As we ponder their faithful responses to the invitation to come to Christ, we can learn to more effectively lift ourselves out of our own inversions, out of any gloom and confusion we may be experiencing, and bring ourselves into the clear, pure hope offered by the Light of the World. It is there, with Him, that we come to feel who we really are and where we fit into the eternal picture. Our own inversions are reversed, and proper perspective is restored.

Elder Patrick Kearon

• PG 31 ENSIGNDECEMBER 2011
• COME, LET US ADORE HIM

The First to Know of Christ's Birth

The Jewish people anxiously anticipated this great event. They knew the Messiah would come, and they expected Him to come in glory, liberate them temporally, establish an earthly kingdom, and rule as their King.

Who would know first of the Messiah’s birth? Would it not be the Sanhedrin or others in positions of power and influence?

The Bible tells us that it was lowly shepherds sleeping on the ground to whom an angel declared the “good tidings of great joy” (Luke 2:10) and that it was Wise Men from afar who saw “his star in the east, and [came] to worship him” (Matthew 2:2). The powerful and the influential, whose vision was blurred by the philosophies of this world, were not with the Savior at His birth or during His ministry. They had before them the real thing but did not know it or accept it.

Gary E. Stevenson, "The Reality of Christmas, " Ensign, Dec 2014, 24-25.

God Knows Our Individual Lives

 “The same god that placed that star in a precise orbit millennia before it appeared over Bethlehem in celebration of the birth of the Babe has given at least equal attention to placement of each of us in precise human orbits so that we may, if we will, illuminate the landscape of our individual lives, so that our light may not only lead others but warm them as well.”

Neal A. Maxwell, That My Family Should Partake (1974), 86.

Come Unto Christ

"What can we learn from the shepherds, Simeon, Anna, and the Wise Men, all of whom were favored to come and see the Christ child with their own eyes? As we ponder their faithful responses to the invitation to come to Christ, we can learn to more effectively life ourselves out of our own inversions, out of any gloom and confusion we may be experiencing , and bring ourselves into the clear, pure hope offered by the Light of the World. It is there, with Him, that we come to feel who we really are and where we git into the eternal picture. Our own inversions are reversed, and proper perspective is restored."

Elder Patrick Kearon, "Come Let us Adore Him," Ensign, Dec 2011, 31.

No Room in the Inn

"At that time and place, an Asian inn was not like a modern Holiday or Bethlehem Marriott. A lodging place back then provided accommodations for traveling caravans, including people and their animals. Caravans stayed at what was then known (and is still known) as a caravansary, or a khan. The dictionary defines these terms as an inn surrounding a court in eastern (or Asian) countries where caravans rest at night.

"Such a facility was typically rectangular in shape, composed of a central courtyard for the animals, surrounded by walled cubicles where people rested. These cubicles allowed guests to be elevated slightly above their animals with open doorways so that owners could watch over their animals. The Joseph Smith Translation of Luke 2:7 indicates that there was no room for them in the "inns," suggesting that all of the cubicles of the caravansary were occupied....

"At an Asian caravansary, animals were secured for the night in the corner courtyard. In that courtyard would have been donkeys, dogs, sheep, possibly camels and oxen, along with all the animals' wastes and odors.

"Because the guest chamber surrounding the courtyard were filled, Joseph may have made the decision to care for Mary's delivery in the center courtyard of a caravansary, along with the animals. It is entirely possible that in such a lowly circumstance the Lamb of God was born."

Elder Russell M. Ballard, From a devotional address delivered at Brigham Young University on December 10, 2002.

A Decree to be Taxed

""And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed" (Luke 2:1).
This was really a capitation tax, a census, and an enrollment--a registration of the citizenry of the empire of Rome. King Herod had directed that people be counted in the land of their ancestors. Mary and Joseph, then living in Nazareth, had to travel southward to the city of David, a distance of approximately 90 miles. Perhaps they traveled even farther if they had to go around the hostile intermediate province of Samaria."

Elder Russell M. Nelson, From a devotional address delivered at Brigham Young University on December 10, 2002.