(Song: "O Come All Ye Faithful" sung by the choir)
Two thousand and eleven years ago, an event occurred that had been anticipated by every one of our Heavenly Father’s children since the beginning of time—the Savior Christ the Lord was born. From our premortal places in the presence of our Heavenly Father, each of us watched with great wonder as our Elder Brother, who we’d known as Jehovah, was born into the world!
What a glorious occasion that must have been! We’d known Jesus in the pre-Earth life. From Him, and our Father, we learned the Plan of Salvation. Every single one of us would someday go to Earth, receive a body, and learn the way to return to our Father’s presence.
No one knows how long we’d awaited Christ’s departure for Earth. But we can, with certainty, say that we looked forward with great faith and hope to His mission on Earth.
This was it! Our gratitude and humility for what he was to do could not have been deeper. As we watched His birth from our eternal vantage point, we celebrated the beginning of His life. We understood that His sojourn through mortality was the defining part of our Heavenly Father’s plan. His ministry would change the course of human events. His great Atonement would open the door of salvation to all people. His resurrection would prove the love God has for all mankind.
So wondrous was the moment of His birth that the angels themselves trumpeted it, announcing these good tidings of great joy to all people. A new star shone bright. Light overhelmed darkness the New World. Perhaps we, in premortality, joined with the angels in saying “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”
(SONG: Joy to the World sung by the congregation)
Indeed, the birth and life, the Atonement and Resurrection, of our Savior call upon each of us to “Ever worship God.” Like the Lord, we left the presence of the Father, accepting the great Plan of Happiness and Christ’s role therein. In this life, we endeavor to rise above our challenges and circumstances, looking forward to Christ’s eventual return; living in such a way that we too may join a new choir of angels that will sing in exultation, heralding His great and majestic Second Coming. In the words of Elder Neal A. Maxwell, “When Christ comes again, it will not be to the meekness of the manger; it will be as the recognized Redeemer and the Lord of the universe! Then, in a great solar display, stars will fall from their places in a witnessing way, with much more drama than at His birth, when ‘the stars in the heavens looked down where he lay.’”
That each of us may continue to remember Him this Christmas Day, and always, is our prayer collectively and individually, in His Holy Name. Amen.
_________NOTE: The phrases "Two thousand and eleven years ago," "What a glorious occasion that must have been," "This was it! Our gratitude and humility for what he was to do do could not have been deeper," and "rise above our circumstances," as well as some thematic elements were based on/taken from a Christmas program script created previously by Joy Ward of Monument, CO.
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