A CHRISTMAS CONNECTION

 

I spent Christmas Day 2022 alone. Circumstances dictated I would have no family, friends, gifts or festivities to focus on. I was ok with it. In fact I looked forward to it resolving it would be the most spiritual Christmas of all: Church, intense study of the Saviour’s life, listening to Handel’s Messiah, watching Passion of the Christ. I was going to have the greatest connection to the Saviour yet. 

 

Christmas Day came and found me in bed sick with a heavy head cold, too sick and unmotivated to carry out my good intentions. No Church, no study, no spiritually charged reflection….just loneliness and misery but…..a connection nevertheless. My aloneness and state of being did more to give me insight than all the planned inspiration that never eventuated. A vista of Christ’s life presented itself to my mind from the humble and unceremonious birth to the horror of Golgotha and Calvary, and in between I saw….loneliness. 

 

This is what I came to understand: the lonely road The Saviour travelled while here would have been fraught with longing for what He had left behind…….something nobody else could understand with their mortal, finite minds. Even though some believed Him to be the Son of God, they would never have understood what it meant to leave His throne; they would have never understood the glimpses He had into eternal worlds He could not speak of; they would have never related to the higher ground He stood on; and they would never have grasped the agony awaiting Him. In short, the Saviour travelled a lonely road. One no doubt paved with many tears. It is true that once He had full knowledge of who He was, He would have had Father’s comforting spirit and the company of angels, nevertheless, these moments of reprieve must have made His feelings of isolation even more acute once they  were withdrawn. The thought that comes to mind: so close, yet so far. 

 

When we come to the stage in our lives where this world becomes less of a ‘reality’ and the yearning for the eternal becomes what is more real, we get a glimpse of the Saviour’s mortal life. This is the point where the longing for Father’s presence sets in. It is the moment to live for, because then we can leave the world behind and do anything necessary to make it back home. We abandon sins; we seek the living water that gives us life and power of endurance; we become bearers of truth and anchors of souls….we become like Him. 

 

Did You miss

Your godly robes

That You traded for 

The swaddling cloths of Calvary?

Was the ground rough beneath

Your feet as You traversed

The dust of Galilee?

The baseness of this earth,

So willingly suffered despite hostility.

Yet, You came:

The Father to reveal

And to Him forever

Our yielding hearts to seal.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: Master by Hayley Miller)

 

IN FATHER'S ARMS

 

I had a vivid memory as I prayed today, of being in Father’s embrace, leaning against His ample chest and such love and longing for His presence enveloped me that I wept. After the prayer my mind was cast upon banished Cain who exclaimed: “….from Thy face shall I be hid….my punishment is greater than I can bear.” (Genesis 4:13,14). I came to understand that being banished from the Father’s presence for eternity would be a punishment greater than I too could possibly bear. And I imagine it will be the same for all of us in that day when we are brought to Him to be judged and we are re-acquainted with His presence (Helaman 14:16-18). We will want to stay with Him forever.

 

Those of us who will qualify for this eternal blessing will rejoice that there was someone who made this possible, a Saviour who will have the power to sanctify us so that we can live in Father’s presence forever. The qualification for this ultimate sanctification has to start here and now. The longing has to be so great that we will do anything we are asked, obey every law we are given, repent of any sin and weakness, and place everything we can of ourselves on the altar of sacrifice.

 

May we reflect this Christmas, upon the highest blessing the baby in the manger made possible two Millenia ago. May we connect to the real purpose of His coming: to bring us to Father, to save us from the jaws of hell, to exalt us on high above the stars of heaven. May we long for the Father and be lifted to fly to Him upon His Son's arms of faith....... 

 

I yearn to feel the closeness of Thy presence

And once again feel the warmth of Thy embrace.

I come to You, Father,

Through the gift of Thy Son's benevolent grace.

 

 

 - CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: Arms of Faith by Youngsung Kim)

ANTICIPATION OF HIS BIRTH

 

Have you ever wondered how the Saviour felt in anticipation of His birth? In that sobering interchange between Job and Jehovah, Job was told that when the foundations of the earth were laid, ‘the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy’ (Job 38:4-7). My patriarchal blessing tells me I was one of those morning stars and that my voice was heard singing praises to our Heavenly Father that I was going to have a privilege of following in the footsteps of a Heavenly Mother. In other words, I was rather happy that my mortal experience was to be a reality.  I imagine all of us were equally happy….all because of one man. Now imagine this:

 

“If anticipation be pain, then in one sense the Saviour’s suffering did not commence with manhood, but eons before – in the premortal existence when He proclaimed these words, “Here am I, send me” (Abraham 3:27). The anticipation of His Atonement since premortal times did not replace the staggering reality of Gethsemane and the cross (which was beyond even His telescopic expectations), but certainly it must have added to the magnitude of pain he bore. In this sense, His suffering extended far beyond the confines of the Garden and the cross.” (Tad R. Callister, The Infinite Atonement, p. 154)

 

We experience a lot of joy every Christmas that comes around. It most certainly is a time for joy, for without the holy birth, there would have been no salvation. The Saviour’s mortal experience, however, was far from joyful. It was filled with pain, rejection, suffering and sorrow, and He started it all the day He willingly lay on the bed of straw to honour our individual worth by the irrevocable promise He made. May we connect with that purpose this Christmas day and honour the Christ, the Lord, the Saviour of us all.

 

Did You miss Your throne divine

When You crossed the threshold of the stable?

Or did You clutch my worth inside You

Stronger than the bonds of death,

That would make Your task so divinely able?

 

I heard the angels in the field

Sing praises to Your holy name;

And I sorrowed knowing, like holy water,

Your love would spill on sacrificial altar. 

 

 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(ART: Submission by Dan Wilson)