Jeffrey R. Holland - Unto Us a Child Is Born

2017 Jeffrey R. Holland

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ISBN 978-1-62972-429-4

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Sun Print Solutions, Salt Lake City, UT

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Unto Us a Child is Born

As the years go by and the arthritis sets in, we stand in shopping lines that seem to get longer and we stretch precariously from ladders stringing Christmas lights that seem never to be quite long enough. We tell ourselves things arent what they used to be and it becomes understandable why, with the passage of time, not all grown-ups bound out of bed at 4:00 a.m. on Christmas morning to see what Santa left under the tree. But therein lies a caution, a warning if you will, for this and every Christmas. If as we grow older the work of Christmas seems to increase even as the inventory of items under that tree and the number of people in the house to enjoy them decrease, there is nevertheless one thing that should never decrease, one thing that should be inseparably linked forever to our adoration of the Savior and the celebration of His birth. That which should never be missing at the yuletide season isif not our childhood per sethen at least the memory of our childhood, the memory of joy and wonder, the memory of almost painful anticipation followed by the sheer delight we experienced in our young years at Christmastime.

You see, Christmas is about childhood; or more precisely, it is about a child; or more precisely yet, it is about a baby. Time is supposed to turn back for us at Christmas. With the birth in Bethlehem, we, too, ought to be reborn again and again and again. Christmas tells us that life is a gift, that because God so loved the world He gaveHe gave His Only Begotten Son, He gave mercy, He gave happiness, He gave salvation, He gave peace. Christmas is the way it is always supposed to bechildlike eyes (whatever ones age) filled with awe, twinkling with beauty, the family of humankind bound by love, and wonderful gifts for everyonethe best kind of gifts, eternal gifts. So we ought to be as young as we can be at Christmas and because of that nativity scene, there is help for us to be a little more childlike for the rest of the year as well. Purity and gratitude, wonder and delightthese are virtues we ought to maintain all of our life. They are certainly virtues children display in abundance at Christmastime, but we need to display them alsoand not only at Christmas but in every other day of the year as well. Life would surely be more pleasant and rewarding if we were all to do that. In this way a childany child, every childcan lead us to and be a symbol of hope for a better world.

[Then] came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them,

And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.

I am quick to acknowledge that we have added a great deal to that first simple manger scene where the very Son of God was born into the lives of an impoverished young Jewish couple. In that sense not all of the materialism of our modern holiday season is beneficial, but for the most part even that busyness is all right if we are careful. Every ribbon and bow, every toy drum and sled, every replica of Frosty and Rudolph and the reindeerthey are all welcome if we stay childlike about it, remembering the reason for such joy: the baby.

A century ago, F. M. Bareham wrote the following:

[In 1809] men were following with bated breath the march of Napoleon... waiting with feverish impatience for news of the wars. And all the while in their homes babies were being born. But who could think about babies? Everyone was thinking about battles.

[But] in one year between Trafalgar and Waterloo there stole into the world a host of heroes: Gladstone was born in Liverpool; Tennyson at the Somersby Rectory; and Oliver Wendell Holmes in Massachusetts. Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky, and music was enriched by the advent of Felix Mendelssohn in Hamburg....

But nobody thought of babies, everybody was thinking of battles. Yet which of the battles of 1809 mattered more than the babies of 1809? We fancy God can manage His world only with great battalions, when all the time he is doing it with beautiful babies.

When a wrong wants righting, or a truth wants preaching, or a continent wants discovering, God sends a baby into the world to do it.

Ringing down through the ages this chorus from the prophet Isaiah by way of George Frideric Handel stirs us deeply:

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end.

That last line refers, of course, to the government of God, but we also should never underestimate the rolethe eventual roleof children in the temporal governments and civil societies in which we now live in and will soon enough hand to them. One of the legendary teachers of our age said of such a transition:

Republics, one after another... have perished from a want of intelligence and virtue in the masses of the people.... If we do not prepare children to become good citizens;if we do not develop their capacities, if we do not enrich their minds with knowledge, imbue their hearts with the love of truth and duty, and a reverence for all things sacred and holy, then our republic must go down to destruction, as others have gone before it; and mankind must sweep through another vast cycle of sin and suffering, before the dawn of a better era can arise upon the world.

I close by noting that many years ago a Nephite king declared that saintliness consisted of becoming as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, [and] full of love...

So, please join with the children in your life by becoming one for a few hours this holiday seasonbe a saint, be a believer, be a child. Enjoy the memories of special Christmases in your own childhood and the anticipation of the Christmases that lie ahead in theirstimes, we pray, when they will see peace on earth, and goodwill toward men. We can only hope that past and present evils can be eradicated, that sorrow and sin will be conquered in our sphere of influence here and now, just as Jesus of Nazareth will ultimately conquer them for everyone everywhere in the end. We as adults must work harder at the part of this task we have been given. The gifted Dorothy Sayers wrote:

The simplest definition of evil begins with whatever makes a child suffer. The most terrible failure of adults has been their inability, or unwillingness, to shoulder responsibilities of adults and protect children... from... newer, non-martial forms of destruction.