A BIRTH AND A DEATH

Did you miss Your throne divine

When You crossed the threshold of the stable?

 And did You clutch my worth inside You

That made Your mortal task divinely able?

 

I heard the angels in the field

Sing praises to Your name;

And I sorrowed knowing, like holy water,

Your love would spill on sacrificial altar.

 

I cannot look at the Saviour’s birth without being reminded of His death. Every time I see the baby in the manger these words echo in my mind: “To this end was I born and for this cause came I into the world….” (John 18:37). You cannot have birth without death and you cannot have death without birth.

When I think of both, my consolation comes from remembering that the jubilation of Christ’s birth was outdone by the jubilation upon His return in triumph beyond the veil. Imagine the tears of sorrow at the cross and compare them to tears of celebration and gratitude that greeted the Saviour as He entered the spirit world: “And there were gathered together in one place an innumerable company of the spirits of the just, who had been faithful in the testimony of Jesus while they lived in mortality…they were filled with joy and gladness and were rejoicing together because the day of their deliverance was at hand….while this vast multitude waited and conversed, rejoicing in the hour of their deliverance from the chains of death, the Son of God appeared, declaring liberty to the captives who had been faithful…..And the saints rejoiced in their redemption, and bowed the knee and acknowledged the Son of God as their Redeemer, and Deliverer from death and the chains of hell. Their countenances shone and the radiance from the presence of the Lord rested upon them, and they sang praises unto His holy name….” (D&C 138:12-18; 23-24)

And what of us who had not yet been born in mortality? We who awaited the return of Him who knew our earthly lives before we did? I imagine the gratitude would have been overwhelming. I imagine we fell down before Him in adoration and praise, knowing our salvation was secure and that the Atonement was fixed and in place to enable us to endure our tribulations and resist the evil forces that would seek to destroy us. I imagine that the very heavens echoed the shouts of our praise. I imagine we wept tears of exquisite joy as we saw our God take His place upon His throne and I imagine all eternity shook as we cried with one voice: “Glory and honour, and power, and might, be ascribed to our God…..let the sun, moon and morning stars sing together and let all the sons of God shout for joy! And let the eternal creations declare his name forever and ever!” (D&C 84:102; 128:23)

-      -  Cathryne Allen, (Art: Born This Day by Liz Lemon Swindle)