So I work in retail. Anyone who works retail will tell you the holiday season is crazy. There are huge crowds of people all looking for the same thing and work schedules are impossible to keep up with as far as making plans. Ummmm... Can I just step up on soapbox with Charlie Brown real fast?
Somebody please tell me why the same people who walk around telling everyone what "the true spirit of Christmas" means are the same people who run through the busy store throwing things on the ground. I know that someone out there is going to get irritated at me and say that its my job to clean up the mess. You are absolutely right. It is my job to pick up after you. However your mess is not my only job. How would you like it if all the
Tickle Me Elmo never were realeased to customers in time for Christmas because the person in charge of putting him out were also in charge of cleaning the entire toy department including the loose legos and cars that you couldn't wait to open. Also, wouldn't you be angry if you took great care to make a beautiful display of folded shirts then while you helped a single customer you return only to seey a ball of clothes where you just cleaned? That's what I thought.
Sorry. I needed that.
Now about Christmas. I recently was fortunate enough to enjoy a stake conference session at church where in I was blessed to hear the words of an Apostle of the Lord. He spoke of the Christmas Stories in The Bible, which we all know well, and of The Book of Mormon, not well known. I encourage you to read about what was happening in the Americas. I espaecially enjoyed the account in the third book of Nephi. READ IT. I won't tell you about it because then you won't feel the need to read it.
I will say this. In Bethlehem Jesus was born and there was a day, a night, and another day as, one day. In the Americas there was a prophecy of that sign of the Savior's birth and has it not been for the prophecy coming true when it did, all believers would be put to death. When Christ was crucified and rose from his tomb, he visited the people in that area and also in the Americas. First He appeared saying he was the "Life and the Light." In the Americas, where the three-days-as-one was so relevant to anyone who believed at the risk of death, He returned saying I am the "Light and the Life."
I seriously considered not sharing this for fear that the medium chosen would not do justice to his talk; it certainly does not do justice. But I know that if you want to see how clearly The Messiah knows each of us individually please read. From the prophecy to the coming. I will post the actual spriptures later. For now read.
He loves us. He knows us. He lives.