Dear Family,
As the month and the year wind down to an end, thoughts of the Savior fill our mind and hearts. The symbolism in all we see, do and feel remind us of the greatest gift given at Christmas time. Not only the gift of His life, but His example, His knowledge, His perfection were given to us to know how to live. I read Sister Reeve's talk from the Relief Society Conference and discovered a new truth; Christ was not only given to us as our scapegoat to heaven. He did not go through theAtonement to say in our time of frief, "That's alright. Look forward. Everything will be better tomorrow". Although He does know what is in store for each of us, that is only a portion of the Atonement.
He was born, He lived, He taught, He blessed, He healed, He served, He turned, He examplified, he sufferen, and He died so He would KNOW how to succor us. He has been the Remembrance, He is the comforter, and He will be the hope. When Christ suffered in the Garden, not only did He provide our way back to Heavenly Father, but He needed to gain the knowledge of how each of us were to get back there. Your path to solace is much different than mine. Your spiritual need is much different than mine. Only one knew the peace each of us need to feel everyday.
When we try to help someone, give them comfort, we are exemplifying the Savior. President Packer taught: "The Lord provides a way for us to pay our debts to Him. In one sense we ourselves may participate in an Atonement. When we are willing to restore to others that which we have not taken, or pay a debt that we did not incure, or heal a wound we did not inflict, we are emulating HIS part in the Atonement. "That is the reason for this Season".
We rejoice in the knowledge that God comforted us TODAY! We rejoice in the birth of righteousness and glory. We rejoice because "We have heard on high...what the gladsome tiding be, which inspire our Heavenly song." We reflect, as Scrooge has done, on Christmas' past; the joy and family today and the hope of the future Christmas' of our lives.
Christmas is the time for gift giving and probably MORE important, gift receiving. Although nice, secular gifts are not "present" in this analogy, (although they could...) No, these gifts are those of Eternal principle and "exceeding weight of Glory" (2 Cor. 4:17). On the anthropoligic scale of negative reciprosity, although very positive, we cannot do one action without the other. As soon as we give of ourselves, we are given His spirit and light. We MUST accept the gifts given for them to work in our lives. Let us give and receive more now then we have hitherto been.
I love you all!
Love ,
Elder Rex Hamblin
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