followers of my faith [Mormon Monday 62]

Last week I mentioned that we celebrated the start of Advent by singing the Messiah, which does have songs about Christ being born, but it also has a lot of songs about Christ's death and resurrection.

It's a sad and happy thing to think of that baby, born to die, so He could live again -- so we all can. But that truly is why we celebrate Christmas.

And though it can be difficult to have hard times during the Christmas season, of all times, this too is symbolic of Christmas.

Elder Holland said (paraphrasing God),

You can’t separate Bethlehem from Gethsemane or the hasty flight into Egypt from the slow journey to the summit of Calvary. It’s of one piece. It’s a single plan…. Christmas is joyful not because it is a season or decade or lifetime without pain and privation, but precisely because life does hold those moments for us. And that baby, my son, my own beloved and Only Begotten Son in the flesh, born ‘away in a manger, [with] no crib for his bed,’ makes all the difference in the world, all the difference in time and eternity, all the difference everywhere, worlds without number, a lot farther than your eye can see. (x)

So when sadness encroaches upon our celebration, may we remember that the joy of Christ's birth, death, and resurrection swallow up all pain.