Sense of wonder
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Noting that Christmas is the celebration of a birth, President Henry B. Eyring spoke of the wonder that most everyone feels when seeing a newborn child.
"We feel humility to see the miracle of the tiny features and promise of the future," said President Eyring, second counselor in the First Presidency, during his address in the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. "We feel tenderness. We feel gratitude. And there comes a feeling of love into our hearts which makes us want to give and to be gentle."
He added, "Those same feelings mark our best Christmas memories. The feelings can come at the birth of any child into mortality. But Christmas is a celebration of a birth like no other. The birth of Jesus had been foreseen by God's prophets for ages. This birth was the fulfillment of a promise made to us in the spirit world by a loving Heavenly Father. It was the birth of the promised Messiah."
President Eyring recalled the first time he heard the words of Isaiah 9:6. He was in his youth, sitting in the Salt Lake Tabernacle, and a choir was singing them as part of Handel's oratorio, "Messiah."
"I can remember feeling something in my heart," he said. "I was young then. I am older now, and I know what that feeling was. It was the Holy Ghost, whose companionship I had been offered when I was 8 years of age. The Spirit confirmed to my heart that words I heard sung that night, and other words we will hear sung tonight, are true."
President Eyring said the feeling he had that night was one of faith and hope. "I felt faith," he said, "that because 'unto us a child was born' I could have hope born in my heart that death would not be the end for me nor for those I loved. I would be resurrected and those dear to me would be raised from death. The sting of death would be removed for all of Heavenly Father's children born into this world."
Yet, he said, he felt more, that because of the birth of the Son, he himself could be born to a newness of spiritual life. "Because of the gift of His birth, my heart could be changed to become again like that of a little child, pure and clean, and fit to go home again to the God who gave us a Savior and provided the way back to Him."
Quoting 1 John 2:8 and 4:9-11, President Eyring commented: "And so we celebrate a sacred birth and a glorious dawn. There is still darkness and cruelty in the world. Yet there is the light and the love which the Savior has brought and is bringing into millions of hearts. We can choose on this Christmas and all the days which will follow to feel that light and that love. We can choose to have our sins washed away in the waters of baptism and to receive the Holy Ghost. And as we do we will feel the love of God who gave us the gift of His Son, a feeling of love for His Son who is the light of the world, and love for one another."
He said: "We sing of that light and that love at Christmas. The Savior's birth is a gift which makes it possible for the Father to give us peace in this world and Eternal Life in the world to come. We shouted for joy when we heard in the spirit world of that promise. Peace and joy come to us again when we hear words sung which proclaim that the loving promise was kept."
E-mail to: rscott@desnews.com
