Tag: Christ

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culture life

Christmas Program

As I was sitting in Sacrament meeting today anticipating the start of our Christmas program the thought struck me of how appropriate it is that we should celebrate the birth of our Savior through so much music. It seems to me that we use music more at this season of the year than for any other celebration.

I think it is appropriate to use so much music for such an important celebration because music communicates with people emotionally and intellectually in a very powerful way. In fact, it may be the generous use of music that helps to keeps our cultural celebration of Christmas so strong. While so many other holidays turn into nothing more than a day off of work or an excuse to hold retail sales Christmas has never yet been relegated to such a bleak fate. Despite any complaints by some about “Happy holidays” or “x-mas” the fact is that I have never found any holiday that carried more spiritual meaning that Christmas. Whatever of secularism might be carried by the figure of Santa Claus we still can hardly go anywhere without some display of the religious side of the season whether we are seeing Menorah’s or nativities or hearing references to Bethlehem and wise men.

An objective analysis would undoubtedly show that Christmas carries more religious significance in our secular society than any other holiday (with the possibility that Easter might rival it for religious/spiritual content). I really would not be surprised if music played a large part in keeping so much of that meaning intact.

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life

“Light of the World”

I’m not sure how long it has been there, but website for the Mormon church’s children’s magazine, The Friend, has a place where kids can Color Online. Savannah was playing there this morning during my scripture study and she called out to me that she was going to put a background of light on the picture of Jesus in the picture she was coloring “because it’s one of His names, ‘the light of the world.'” I thought that was very insightful – I wonder if any artists thought of it that way back when it was standard practice to place a halo of light around the face of Christ.

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life

Opportunities for Blessings

I remember a quote by Joseph Smith saying:

A man filled with the love of God, is not content with blessing his family alone but ranges through the world, anxious to bless the whole of the human family.

I have always liked that quote because I have felt that yearning at times to be able to bless the more of the human family than just my own family. I have known intellectually that priesthood service is an opportunity to fulfill that yearning to bless a wider reange of people, but this weekend I had an experience that brought a new level of understanding to that opportunity as well as to the need to be ever ready to administer in priesthood functions.

A devastating crash on Friday night left a father and mother dead along with a young family friend. It also left a young girl in critical condition in the hospital who, along with a nearly two-year-old brother (who was minorly injured) is now without parents. I knew none of these people, but the father who died is a brother to the wife of the family that I home teach and because of the daughter being in Primary Children’s Hospital, many of the family members came to stay with the family I home teach. On Saturday night, after they left the hospital to get some rest, I went to their home with the Bishop and Elder’s Quorum President to visit with this grieving family and offer whatever assistance we could.

I have known this family for less than six months, and I have never before met any of the relatives who were staying there, and yet upon entering the house in the capacity of a priesthood holder they were not “strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.” (Ephesians 2:19)

It was a marvelous blessing for me to be able to feel that Christian love for others in need and offer to help in any way that they needed. As we offered comfort and blessings as requested I came to see how priesthood service offers the opportunity in a very real way to range throughthe world blessing the whole human family.

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life

How Firm a Foundation

I woke up this morning with my brain making up variations on “The wise man built his house upon the rock.” (ex. “The wise man lived his life above reproach” or “The wise man spent his time above the fray.”) I really don’t know why I was thinking of that, but it fit right in with the lesson in Sunday school today about the foundation that we build our lives upon. One of the great things that Sister Monson did with the lesson was that she started off playing How Firm a Foundation while the class sang verses 1, 2, & 7. I love that hymn – like many that have extra verses written outside the music, we don’t sing the later verses nearly enough.

As we were talking about what it means to build our lives on a foundation of Christ I realized that our real foundation in life, no matter what we might profess, is the thing that never gives when push comes to shove. It reminded me of a discussion that took place on the blog of a friend in early 2007:

The key is to remember that there can be only one rock upon which to build your knowledge. Everything else must be window-dressing. . . Even your rock must be open for reexamination because if it can’t withstand a challenge it isn’t much of a rock.

If the foundation that we claim to be built on can be shifed by the challenges that we face then it is more sand than rock.

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life

More Than Enough

In 2006 I wrote a post asking What kind of God do you worship? I was reminded of that post as I thought of my personal answer to the question this evening. I was watching The Testaments: Of One Fold and One Shepherd with my kids and it really hit home in the final scene.

In the scene we have a father, Helam, and son, Jacob, talking as they observe Christ among the Nephite people. Jacob is describing the Savior to Helam who has been blinded because of an accident while helping Jacob.

Jacob: You have looked for the Messiah all your life and now He is here and because of me you cannot leap for joy. You cannot even see Him.

Helam: But you can see Him. And that is enough.

At this moment the hand of Christ reaches to Jacob’s shoulder and Jacob moves so that Christ can heal Helam’s eyes.

Helam had been satisfied that his son could see the Savior, but the Savior allowed him to see as well. That is the kind of God I worship – the kind who is willing to give us more than enough of our heart’s desire if we will persist in seeking Him even more than we seek the things of the world.

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life

“We Talk of Christ”

Earlier this week I came across Christ.org and I really enjoyed reading what kinds of things had been written there. I plan to follow the discussion there to see if it continues to be enlightening. I also hope that it might be a source to spark my thinking when it comes to my Sunday postings as I try to avoid topics that are mainly secular in nature.

If you have any belief or interest in Christ it would be well worth your time to check out the site and see if it has anything to offer you.

Categories
life

More Than a Hero

As I have continued to think about the heroes after my post yesterday I have tried in my own mind to clarify the definition of hero more fully. One thought that I had was that a hero was someone you could emulate – someone you could hope to follow or who you could hope to become. Another thought was that the ultimate hero in my life is my Savior.

The moment that I tried to add Christ mentally into my list of heroes I encountered a problem. While a hero is someone that I would wish to emulate – and Jesus certainly qualifies there – Christ presents a problem in that all of the people who I might classify as heroes I have hope that I could do the things that they have done to be heroes to me. With Christ that is only partially true. I can hope to care for others as He did and strive to obey the commandments of God as He did, but His heroism goes well beyond anything that I could ever hope to do. He gave a gift to me and the world that I could never hope to give – the opportunity to return to our heavenly home. All the good that I could ever do would pale in comparison. More importantly, all the good I could ever do would be worthless if He did not also give the gift that He gave to the world.

He has thus separated Himself from all others who I might call heroes because whatever is good and worthy of emulation in them I could hope to duplicate in my life. My conclusion is that there must be a separate category for Christ. Either He is the Hero and all others could be classified as models, or else they are heroes and He has a designation all His own – perhaps LORD.