Praise to the Men

I always love this time of year.  There is nothing quite like the Christmas season in terms of its ability to soften hearts and produce a sense of true joy.  As a student, it affords me an opportunity to come home for a few weeks, enjoying the company of family and friends.  I can truly say that there is nothing quite like the experience of coming home after being away for awhile.  There is just something special about being able to spend time with family and friends during the holidays.  This past week has only reaffirmed that feeling, as it has given me opportunities to see familiar faces and old friends.

As Latter-day Saints, this season is doubly important.  In addition to celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior, we also get to celebrate the birth of the Prophet Joseph Smith on the 23rd.  Thus this season gives us a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the principles of the restored gospel and the plan of salvation.

Somewhere close to 2000 years ago, an angel informed a group of shepherds, "For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:11).  That announcement was the culmination of thousands of prophecies uttered between that day and the pre-mortal day when the Savior responded, "Here am I, send me" to the Father's question, "Whom shall I send?" (Abraham 3:27), promising to offer His life and blood as a ransom for the sins of all mankind.  While we tend to focus upon the Savior's birth at this happy season, Elder Holland has reminded us that we "can't separate Bethlehem from Gethsemane or the hasty flight into Egypt from the slow journey to the summit of Calvary....It is a single plan" that "considers 'the fall and rising again of many in Israel.'"  (Jeffrey R. Holland, Shepherds Why This Jubilee?, 68).  Indeed, "Lying among those gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh were also a crown of thorns, a makeshift royal robe, and a Roman spear" (Holland, Shepherds Why This Jubilee?, 58).  It is the suffering, death, and resurrection of the Savior that give true meaning to this season, allowing us to rejoice at Christmas-time.

Equally important to our joy at this season is the message we proclaim that the gospel has been restored and that we once again have full access to the redemptive power of the Savior's atonement.  While "we do not worship the Prophet [Joseph Smith]....we acknowledge him, we proclaim him, we respect him, [and] we reverence him as an instrument in the hands of the Almighty in restoring to the earth the ancient truths of the divine gospel, together with the priesthood through which the authority of God is exercised in the affairs of his church and for the blessing of his people" (Gordon B. Hinckley, Ensign, May 1977, 55).  We proclaim with that Prophet that "The fundamental principles of our religion are the testimony of the Apostles and Prophets, concerning Jesus Christ, that He died, was buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended into heaven; and all other things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it" (Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 121).

At this glorious season, we testify that the Prophet Joseph Smith was indeed called of God to be that chosen vessel through whom the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ was restored, once again making available unto all of the children of God, all of the rights, privileges, powers, and blessings of the atonement of Jesus Christ.  Thus at this season, we sing with fervor, "Praise to the man who communed with Jehovah," and "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation!"  Truly, this is a season to be merry, considering both our blessings and the accompanying responsibilities to proclaim these truths unto all men.

Brett

The Laborer in Zion

This past week I had a dream that caused me to think back to an experience I had when I was 11 or 12.  It was during the summer and my friend and I were discussing ideas about what we could do to make some money over the summer (which we probably intended to blow on some useless item).  Around that time two members of my ward, Charles and Helen Anderson, had a mission farewell.  They were going to serve in Chile for 18 months.  Because the Andersons had a very large lawn and yard that would need to be taken care of, I saw this as my golden opportunity.  So I brashly approached Brother Anderson and offered to take care of his lawn while they were gone (all without my parents knowledge or approval).  Later that night, Brother Anderson came over to the house and talked to my Dad about it and agreed to let our family take care of their yard while they were gone for $60 a month [read Dad doing the majority of the work; Rob doing quite a bit; and me tagging along], which we did for the next 18 months.

At the time, I remember being embarrassed when Brother Anderson came over to the house to talk with Dad.  That was the first moment when I realized that perhaps my 11 year old intellect had failed me in my rashness to pursue this money-making venture.  But in the intervening years I had largely forgotten about this even.  And so, unfortunately, it wasn't until I started to think back on things this week that I realized just exactly where I had gone wrong.

My parents had raised me to know that we should treat the servants of the Lord with a high level of respect, and that we should lighten their loads whenever possible.  I grew up with stories about how the Lord blesses those who serve them, whether it be through meals or other blessings.  Every time there was an opportunity to feed the missionaries, my Mom signed up.  And whenever there was a new missionary in the ward, my Mom and Dad found some money somewhere in there often-meager budgets to help send this new elder or sister on their way.  Indeed, when I served as a missionary, I was the beneficiary of countless sacrifices by both friends and family who understood this same principle.  But for some reason, when I was 11 I saw dollar signs where I should have seen an opportunity to bless the servants of the Lord the way that my parents had taught me.

Of course I was not very old, and hopefully have grown a lot wiser and more sensitive over the years.  But as I thought about this experience, I was reminded of my cousin Sherri's daughter, Ali.  For years, Ali has used babysitting as a means to generate some spending money, with one exception.  She has never accepted money when she was babysitting for a couple that was going to the Temple.  As a young teenager, Ali has understood something that apparently escaped my 11 year old brain:  that we have a duty and an obligation to ease the burdens upon the servants of the Lord as they do the work of the Lord.

Coincidentally, I read these words of Nephi in the morning after waking up from that dream:  "But the laborer in Zion shall labor for Zion; for if they labor for money they shall perish" (2 Nephi 26:31).  While there was probably nothing wrong with my being compensated for helping to care for Brother and Sister Anderson's yard, there was a problem with the underlying reasons for my labor.  I had not been seeking to relieve a burden from Brother and Sister Anderson in an effort to serve them as they went out to serve the Lord.  Consequently, I had not been laboring for Zion.

I'm grateful for the experiences of the intervening years and the numerous examples of others who helped me to begin to learn how to labor for Zion.  May God bless all of us to learn how to more fully ease the burdens of the servants of the Lord, that Zion may "increase in beauty, and in holiness" with "her borders [being] enlarged" and "her stakes...strengthened" (D&C 82:14), and that we may prove fit inhabitants for her.

Brett

The Condescension of God

Arnold Frieberg painting of Nephi's Vision

Every year at Christmas time, I think about Nephi's vision in 1 Nephi 11.  As a part of that vision, Nephi was shown the beauty and purity of Mary, the mother of our Lord.  Wanting to ensure that Nephi understood the message of his vision, the Spirit asked him and important question:  "Knowest thou the condescension of God?" (1 Nephi 11:16)  The youthful Nephi responded the way that many of us respond when we are asked challenging questions as he attempted to answer the question without having a clue what the question had actually meant.  He responded, "I know that [God] loveth his children; nevertheless I do not know the meaning of all things" (1 Nephi 11:17).


Knowledgeable as he was, Nephi did not seem to have understood the meaning of the enigmatic phrase "the condescension of God."  Without really knowing it, however, Nephi provided the perfect answer to his teacher's question, an answer that turned out to be much more guided by inspiration than by desperation.


The condescension of God held a twofold meaning.  First, it was the glorious truth that our perfect Father came down to earth to beget His perfect Son, "that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).  Nephi wrote, "And I looked and behind the virgin again, bearing a child in her arms.  And the angel said unto me:  Behold the Lamb of God, yea, even the Son of the Eternal Father!" (1 Nephi 11:20-21) Second, the condescension of God was the merciful decision of our Savior to come to earth and to suffer, bleed, and die in our behalf so that He might know "how to succor [us] according to [our] infirmities" (Alma 7:12) and "draw all men unto [Him]" (3 Nephi 27:13).


Nephi's answer may not have been theologically complex, but it was everlastingly true.  In all of the perplexities and questions of life, we, like Nephi, can rest assured that God loveth His children.  All that the Father and the Son have done, They have done out of their great love and mercy toward us.  As Nephi would later state, "He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his life that he may draw all men unto him" (2 Nephi 26:24).  The whole meaning of this Christmas season is that "[God] loveth his children."  It was that love that caused the Father to send His Son to Earth, and it was that love that prompted the Savior to pay the price of our redemption.


The Prophet Joseph Spoke a great truth when he declared, "Love is one of the chief characteristics of Deity, and ought to be manifested by those who aspire to be the sons [and daughters] of God" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 174).  At this Christmas season, may we contemplate and comprehend more fully the marvelous love of God as manifest in the gift and sacrifice of His Son.  And then, having come to know and experience "the pure love of Christ," may we "pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that we may be filled with this love...that when he shall appear we shall be like him" (Moroni 7:47-48).  And being filled with that love, may we then seek to bless all of our Father's children.


Brett