December 25

Upon Judea's Plains

I stood upon Judean plains
And heard celestial sounds and strains;
I heard an angel, free from sin,
Announce the birth of David's kin.

On shepherds watching sheep by night
There came a shining, glorious light,
As holy choirs from heaven's dome
Saw God's own son make clay his home.

And voices sweet sang this reprise:
“To God on high, let praise arise;
And peace, God will to men on earth;
This is the day of Jesus' birth.”

To me there came this witness sure:
He is God's son, supreme and pure,
To earth he came, my soul to save,
From sin and death and from the grave.

~Bruce R. McConkie


Help us rightly to member the birth of Jesus, that we may share in the song of the angels, the gladness of the shepherds, and worship of the Wise Men. Close the door of hate and open the door of love all over the world. Let kindness come with every gift, and good desire with every greeting. Deliver us from evil by the blessings that Christ brings, and teach us to be merry with clean hearts. May the Christmas morning make us happy to be Thy children, and Christmas evening bring us to our beds with grateful thoughts; forgiving and forgiven, for Jesus's sake. Amen.

~Robert Louis Stevenson, “A Christmas Prayer”


Are you willing to forget what you have done for other people, and to remember what other people have done for you; to ignore what the world owes you, and to think what you owe to the world; to put your rights in the background, and your duties in the middle distance, and your chances to do a little more than your duty in the foreground; to see that your fellowmen are just as real as you are; and try to look behind their faces to their hearts, hungry for joy; to own that probably the only good reason for your existence is not what you are going to get out of life, but what you are going to give to life; to close your book of complaints against the management of the universe, and look around you for a place where you can sow a few seeds of happiness – are you willing to do these things even for a day? Then you can keep Christmas.

Are you willing to stoop down and consider the needs and the desires of little children; to remember the weakness and loneliness of people who are growing old to stop asking how much your friends love you, and ask yourself whether you love them enough; to bear in mind the things that other people have to bear on their hearts; to try to understand what those who live in the same house with you really want, without waiting for them to tell you; to trim your lamp so that it will give more light and less smoke, and to carry it in front so that your shadow will fall behind you; to make a grave for your ugly thoughts and a garden for your kindly feelings, with the gate open – are you willing to do these things even for a day? Then you can keep Christmas.

Are you willing to believe that love is the strongest thing in the world – stronger than hate, stronger than evil, stronger than death – and that the blessed life which began in Bethlehem nineteen hundred years ago is the image and brightness of the Eternal Love? Then you can keep Christmas.

And if you keep it for a day, why not always?

But you can never keep it alone.

~Henry Van Dyke