Christmas 2015

Since it's the Christmas season, I've been reflecting on it and what it means to me. 

To me, Christmas is about serving. It's about paying good deeds forward. Yesterday, as I walked out of a store on Main Street in Cardston (not always the most friendly place) someone held the door open for me. As I stepped into the cold, snowy outdoors, I saw my next door neighbor attaching his jumper cables to a very frazzled mother's mini van to start it for her. Christmas is about going out of your way to help other people, and to make their day better. 

Christmas is about family gatherings. It's about everyone coming home for the holiday. My Granparents have been working all month to finish their basement living room so we can all gather together in their home on Christmas Day. It's not perfect, but there isn't a more welcoming place to me than that cozy room. 

Christmas is about giving: time, talents, and gifts that might brighten someone else's day. It's about finding the perfect present for someone, and waiting with hopeful anticipation to see their face when they open the heartfelt gift. Maybe it's not something extravagant, but giving always makes Christmas more meaningful. 

Most importantly, Christmas is about Christ and His birth. The birth of my Savior is one of the most significant events to ever have occurred. Because of Him, all mankind may be saved if we follow His example. His humble birth allowed Him to be able to relate to all of us when we are in our lowest of lows in life. I feel the lyrics to a song pinpoint my feelings about the Savior in words I struggle saying by myself: 

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound. That saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see... The Lord has promised good to me, His word my hope secures, He will my Sheild and Portion be, as long as life endures...

And another song: 

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 toward 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 towards men." 

Because of Him, because a Savior was born, I can be saved. At Christmas, we celebrate His birth. A perfect being born into an unclean world to allow all of us to become clean again, and provide us a way to return to live with God again...it's the greatest gift of all time. 

That's what Christmas means to me!