NOT JUST ORDINARY SHEEP . . .

Because Christmas is traditionally celebrated during December each year, most people assume that the Son of God was born in Bethlehem at this time of the year; however, based upon the Biblical record, it would have been early spring when the Christ child would have come into the world. Late March through early April was lambing season, and shepherds may have been laboring in Bethlehem's hillside field on the night of Jesus' birth, assisting the ewes in the birthing of their lambs.

While shepherds watched their flocks by night

From the Book of Luke, Chapter 2, we read . . .  

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. 

Have you ever wondered why Heavenly Father would have sent an angel messenger together with a multitude of the heavenly host to these particular shepherds announcing the birth of His Only Begotten Son? The story about the shepherds and these specific sheep is significant, because Jewish law proclaimed that only flocks designated for sacrifice could be raised near cities. It is likely that these were no ordinary animals, but these were the paschal lambs that would be sacrificed during the Feast of the Passover.

To be responsible for the care and safe-keeping of the sheep that must be free from any blemish, deformity, or injury would have been considered to be a sacred and solemn duty. It would be almost inconceivable to believe that the men who were chosen for this special assignment would under any circumstances abandon the flock. But . . .

. . . it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. 

And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.

God will provide the Lamb

We testify that God the Father sent His Only Begotten Son who was the only person to ever live in mortality without sin or blemish to atone for the sins of all mankind. He is the sacrificial Lamb of God who gave His life to become the Savior of the world. If we are willing to accept His atoning sacrifice, He is our Shepherd, and we are His sheep.

THE HAPPY DANCE!

As proselyting missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Sister Lindsay and I have been called to bring souls to Christ. Even though we have only been here for about three months, we have had the privilege of witnessing a sweet miracle in the life of Cheryl Butler, a formerly less-active member of the Church who has now embraced the fullness of the gospel and in the process found a joy and peace that she admits she had never before known in her life.

In the Old Testament of the Bible, the words found in the Book of Ecclesiastes speak of a time to weep, and a time laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance . . . He hath made every thing beautiful in his time (see Eccl 3:4,11). The enthusiasm that this good sister has exhibited as we have taught her gospel principles has been fueled by her sincere desire to learn the things of God. Sister Butler has manifested her joy by doing what she calls a "happy dance" much to the delight of other Church members who have witnessed it.

Yesterday, we took Sister Butler to the Washington DC Temple for the first time to receive her endowment. A number of other Church members joined us for this joyous occasion. The angels in heaven must have smiled along with us when Cheri Butler treated us once again with her happy dance outside the temple!

Cheryl Butler at the Washington DC Temple

According to the scriptures, the Lord understands this type of happiness and encourages it:

Let them praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp.
                                                                                                            - Psalm 149:3

Sister Butler already sings in the choir, but I guess that we will have to talk with her about learning to play the timbrel and harp.

34TH ANNUAL FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS

Washington DC Temple at Christmas

If you want to really feel the true spirit of Christmas, come to the Visitors' Center of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints adjacent to the beautiful Washington DC Temple in Kensington, Maryland, which offers two nightly musical performances in a large auditorium every night in December. It is open to the public free of charge with a wide offering of special Christmas programs representing community organizations as well as Church groups and professional musicians.

Outside of the Visitors' Center, trees and bushes are decorated with 500,000 miniature lights and there is a life-sized nativity scene depicting the birth of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Inside, there is a large room filled with a unique collection of nativities that have been gathered from around the world. Sixteen Christmas trees individually decorated by the member stakes from Maryland and Virginia that are a part of the temple district are positioned throughout the building.

Decorated tree featuring paintings associated with Christ's birth

Sister Lindsay and I had an opportunity to be at the Monday night program on December 12th featuring Jenny Oaks Baker, a renown concert violinist, her three daughters (ages 10, 8, and 6) who are themselves accomplished musicians on the violin, piano, and cello respectively. Ron Warren, a native American who masterfully plays the distinctive wood flute, was also a featured artist. Hundreds of appreciative people, including entire families with lots of children enjoyed the wonderful sounds of Christmas music. It was nice to be in the presence of so many people who were enjoying the moment and obviously having a good time.

And unlike the typical experiences that we have been having as missionaries interacting with individuals in the stores and on the street, the people who attended the concert were actually smiling and wishing each other a Merry Christmas!

MIRACLE ON 34th STREET - THE SEQUEL?

Classic Christmas Movie Playbill

If you mention "Miracle on 34th Street" this time of the year, most people think about the 1947 Christmas movie about the New York City Macy's Department Store Santa Claus (Edmund Gwenn as the real Kris Kringle) and  Susan (10 year old Natalie Wood) who wanted to believe in him in spite her mother's (Maureen O'Hara) insistence that there is no such thing as Santa Claus.

But if you ask the folks who live in Baltimore about the Miracle on 34th Street, it is an amazing display of holiday lights, lots of lights, that cover virtually every row house and yard in the 700 block of of 34th Street in Baltimore's Hampden community. The annual display, which takes place between November and early January, started 64 years ago (the same year that the movie was first shown in theaters).

Hubcap Christmas Tree

This is a major tourist attraction for visitors, as many as 1,000 on a single evening, who come from near and far to see everything from unusual Christmas trees made from hubcaps or old vinyl records, animated figures, Walt Disney cartoon characters, tributes to the Baltimore Ravens professional football team, Hanukkah menorahs, trains, a metal robot nativity, plastic flamingos, and anything else that someone might consider to be symbolic of the holiday season. And did I mention the lights? There are thousands of lights everywhere in the yards, on the houses, and even strung across the street from one rooftop to another!

Even humane societies are represented

Activist organizations, like humane societies, are included as well with two adjacent houses displaying large posters featuring photographs of cats and dogs that are available for adoption just in time for the holidays. In the "spirit" of unity and helpfulness, neighbors in some cases have assisted those who have trouble affording energy costs by pulling extension cords into their own homes.

Undeniably a long-standing holiday tradition in this city, this event is in a class all by itself when it comes to the commercialization of Christmas; but this Miracle on 34th Street in no way encourages individuals to reflect upon the humble birth of the Son of God in a dimly lit stable more than 2,000 years ago.

In the "Miracle on 34th Street" movie, Doris Walker (Maureen O'Hara), tells her daughter, "Faith is believing in things when common sense tells you not to." Compare this worldly definition of faith with the Word of God as offered in both the Bible and The Book of Mormon:

And now as I said concerning faith - faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true. (Alma 32:21)

I testify that JESUS CHRIST IS THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD; and if every Christmas light ever made by man would be illuminated simultaneously, they couldn't hold a candle next to the Savior and Redeemer of mankind! 

DOES SHE LOVE ME?

The Annapolis, Baltimore, and Columbia Zones of the Maryland Baltimore Mission (about 70 missionaries) participated  in the Christmas Conference at Columbia yesterday.The program lasted from 10 am until 4:30 pm and included formal training provided by President and Sister Belliston, a wonderful luncheon prepared by the Relief Society of the Columbia First Ward, the viewing of a new Church video about the birth of Jesus Christ based upon New Testament Bible scriptures, and a testimony meeting. The final hour involved missionaries sharing their special gifts in an informal talent show featuring music, special readings, magic shows, group gymnastics, and original poetry.

Sister Lindsay was responsible for having me read two of my poems that were actually written twenty-nine years ago. Does She Love Me? is printed below and was first shared in a Church Relief Society program in Frederick when we lived in Maryland back in the 1980s. For this occasion, I recruited four young missionaries who sat on the edge of the stage, each holding a single daisy in his hand. As I read the words of the poem, each elder in turn dramatically pulled all the petals off his flower. Then I gathered the four stems and gave them to my wife.

From inside my coat jacket, I removed a 5th daisy with all its petals intact and presented it to her.

Bouquet of daisies (before)

Does She Love Me?

                         I picked some daises for my girl and walked them to her home.

                         But on the way I had vain thoughts; you know how minds can roam?

                         I twirled the daises in my hand, wondering if I might

                         Determine if my girl loved me by pulling petals right?

                         Now she loves me, she loves me not, the petals fall away.

                         As one by one I pull them out on this warm summer's day.

                         One daisy done, and I don't know if my girl loves me true.

                         Perhaps, I need to try again on daisy number two?

                         Two daisies gone. Can I be sure my sweetheart does love me?

                         I think it best to test once more on daisy number three.

                         The answer isn't yet quite clear if she loves me or not?

                         I really want to know right now. To me, it means a lot.

                         I walk along half crazed with fear the answer I must know.

                         Does she love me or love me not? One more flower to go.

                         Now she loves me; I know she does! I wonder what she'll say?

                         When I hand her this pile of stems that once was her bouquet?

                        

                                                                         - NormLindsay

                                                                                     September 9, 1982

Bouquet of daisy stems (after)

A CANDLELIGHT REMINDER

On September 17, 1862, Union and Confederate forces clashed for more than twelve hours around the small village of Sharpsburg, Maryland along the Antietam Creek in what became the bloodiest single day in American military history. Every casualty was an American!

The senior missionaries of The Maryland Baltimore Mission traveled to Sharpsburg, Maryland last Saturday, to witness the 23rd Annual Antietam National Battlefield Memorial Illumination, an event that draws thousands of visitors each year on the first Saturday in December. In the late afternoon, we first went to the National Cemetery, which is located on the north edge of the town, where row upon row of white marble stones mark the final resting place for thousands of soldiers who died in this Civil War battle.

Antietam National Cemetery

Exiting the cemetery about 4:30, the shadows of evening were already beginning to gather and silently spread across the battlefield. We traveled the short distance to where a line of automobiles was already forming for the illumination event, which wasn't scheduled to start for another hour and a half. We found our place in line  just east of Antietam Creek seven-tenths of a mile behind the lead car. Within 15 minutes of our arrival, the line of vehicles had quickly extended behind us until we could no longer see the last car beyond the next curve in the road about a quarter of a mile away.

A few minutes past six o'clock the long procession began to inch along the road in the dark through the military park. In every direction across the fields of battle, there were lighted candles in weighted brown paper sacks. Each of the 23,110 luminaries encountered along the driving tour represented a Union or Confederate solder killed, wounded, or missing during that fateful day nearly a century and a half ago.

Luminaries at Antietam Battlefield

(photo by Bob Carney)

It was an impressive yet solemn occasion as we and thousands of other people passed slowly through five miles of the Antietam Battlefield after dark under a star lit sky with a half moon overhead. If you have never been there yourself, it is difficult to describe what our eyes actually saw and the feelings that stirred within us as we passed over this hallowed ground. For me, personally, it didn't seem as if I was looking at candlelit bags in neat rows across the fields. Instead, I was "seeing" thousands of brave individuals who had given the ultimate sacrifice of their lives, so we and other generations of Americans could enjoy the freedoms of today. And for each soldier who was a casualty here, there were fathers, mothers, siblings, wives, and children who suffered the loss of their loved ones as a result of this terrible conflict.

Each succeeding generation must learn for itself that freedom is not free. 

ALL THAT WE HAVE IS THINE ALONE . . .

It is typical in today's society for men and women to judge their own relative worth based upon how much of the world's goods that they possess, including money, in comparison to their fellow beings. To be "poor" is often perceived as having less "wealth" than others.

As the Lord's servants, we invite people to gain a greater understanding of what Heavenly Father expects of us regarding material things in this life. While sharing the message of the fullness of the Gospel with others, we teach them the principle of tithing, which is God's commandment that we pay one-tenth of our increase back to him through our tithes and offerings to the Church. Sadly, we have had the experience of witnessing individuals who try to balance their desire to embrace the spiritual aspects of the gospel while rejecting the temporal requirement to pay tithing, which they say they cannot afford because of their particular financial circumstances (see Malachi 3:8-9). 

First and foremost, it is essential to know that tithing really doesn't have anything to do with money. Everything associated with the creation already belongs to God and that which we give and what we keep are all to be gratefully used in God's service. In the Book of Psalms, we read that the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein (Psalm 24:1). If the truth be known, Heavenly Father doesn't need "our" money; it already belongs to Him. We came into this world without a dime to call our own; and when we die, we won't be able to take any material wealth with us either!

                                                         We give Thee but Thine own,
                                                         Whate'er the gift may be:
                                                        All that we have is Thine alone,
                                                        A trust, O Lord, from Thee.

                                                        May we Thy bounties thus
                                                        As stewards true receive,
                                                        And gladly, as Thou blessest us,
                                                       To Thee our first-fruits give.

                                                                              - William W. How (1858)

Robert D. Hales, an Apostle of the Lord in these latter-days has taught that tithing is a test of faith with eternal blessings. In the Old Testament, Abraham proved his faith by paying tithing to the great high priest Melchizedek. Abraham's grandson Jacob vowed to the Lord, "Of all thou shalt give me I will surely give tenth unto thee." Tithing has been established in these latter days as an essential law for members of the Lord's restored Church. It is one of the basic ways we witness our faith in Him and our obedience to His laws and commandments.

                                        

So what happens when we willingly give back one-tenth of our increase with the payment of our tithing in order to help build the Kingdom of God on the earth? The answer is given by Old Testament Prophet Malachi; and again, please note that the promised blessings don't necessarily have anything to do with money:

Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

                                                                                                              - Malachi 3:10

Any blessing we receive from Heavenly Father is predicated upon our obedience to His commandments. The real question is whether we love God more than we love ourselves? Living the Law of Tithing helps to pull us away from the shallowness and materialistic greed of the world and into a closer spiritual relationship with God. Being less concerned with what our fellowmen think about us and more focused on what God thinks about us will have eternal consequences! Never forget that Heavenly Father always keeps His promises, but we must do our part first.