There are so many during this wonderful Christmas season who suffer from There is one who became your Advocate, your Savior, your Redeemer and your Lord God long before you were born into this world.
I know these are just words, but I ask you to pause for a moment, whisper a small prayer to your Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus Christ and ask Him, if this is true. For in my darkest hours my Savior has lifted me up. In my times of greatest joy, He has rejoiced with me. And everything in between, I know He stands waiting, simply hoping that I will reach out and take that hand He is holding out.
What is that hand? It is the gospel of Jesus Christ so filled with hope, peace and joy that one can scarcely mourn for extended periods of time if we truly turn to our Savior and let Him lift that burden.
My father passed away from Signet Ring Adenocarcinoma in March of this year. From diagnosis to death it was a scant seven weeks, but we knew before then that something was wrong, we just didn’t know how bad. In that seven weeks the sure knowledge I have of the gospel of Jesus Christ and what awaits us on the other side of the veil, which parts heaven from earth, was not only a time of sorrow and tears, it was a time of rejoicing. My father was given more tasks to do once he reached heaven that he said with a grin, “I think I have more jobs to do on the other side of the veil than I do here.”
We spent those weeks talking of all the prophets and apostles through the ages of time. Oh, I begged my father to find Captain Moroni and thank him for being so valiant, true and loyal to his family, his people, his country and Jesus Christ. I wanted him to find Joseph Smith, Jr. and tell him how I have learned from the revelations which poured daily from heaven during his lifetime. I pled with him to find my great-great-great grandfather, Moses Harris, and thank him for recognizing the truth when it was taught to him by Mormon missionaries in 1832. Because of him generations of our family have grown up in the gospel, always having the knowledge, the blessings and dreams available to us if we only reached out to grasp them.
You see, there are two ways to look at things. Oh yes, we were so sorry our father was leaving us, and indeed, I choke up now as I write this. I miss him. But the excitement in knowing he continues, that he lives, that we will see him again . . . this comes with knowledge of the Plan of Salvation which is also known as that great Plan of Happiness.
All this, because in the grand council in heaven our Lord and Savior stepped forward and said, “I’ll do it.” With the knowledge that there is a clear and steady path back to our heavenly home, with the certainty that our Savior awaits us there, peace is all that exist in your heart.
So at this Christmastime, look past the gaily wrapped packages, the decorated streets of your city, the screaming displays of the store windows and aisles, the Christmas music at every turn . . . stop, listen and remember, you stand not alone. On that bright night 2,007 years ago, came into the world the Lord God Jesus Christ. He fulfilled His covenant to the Father and to us:
And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
I am that bread of life.
I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. (John 6: 35,48,51)
Allow your burdens to be lifted, feel of that healing love which He gives to you and remember.
