Trip to LA Temple & Christmas Devotional

The Christmas season is here with all its flurry!  We didn't even get a chance to eat Thanksgiving dinner before being inundated with TV commercials touting the "Black Friday" starting on Thursday.  All these doorbuster bargain sales seem silly to me, but corporate America still insisted on screaming at me, "Come shop at my store!  I have the best gifts for the best price and you'll be the hero of your family as you give them everything they could ever want and more!"  There are times when I feel Charlie Brown's desperation when, after being mocked for his choice of a Christmas tree, he cries, "Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?"  Linus delivers the answer to Charlie Brown's question.  For me, two things have helped set the tone for the Christmas season: 1) was taking Ben's friend, Xavier, to see the Christmas lights at the Los Angeles Temple, and 2) the annual Christmas Devotional lead by the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

We had tried to take Xavier to the LA Temple last year with the Young Men and Young Women's groups from our ward, but he got sick and wasn't able to make it.  This year something happened (scheduling conflicts or the like) and our ward's YM and YW didn't go as they have in the past.  Ben really wanted to take his friend, so we decided to make the trip ourselves.  I think everyone had a nice time.  We stopped at In-n-Out for dinner on the way and spent at least a couple of hours walking around the temple grounds and going through the Visitor's Center.  Inside the center, we met a sister missionary who is pretty new to the field.  She took us around and showed us Mr. Krueger's Christmas and the same video about families we saw in Palmyra.  There was also a video depicting the Christmas story running on a continual loop and a display of Nativity sets from around the world.  We told her to keep an eye out for us in three of weeks as we would be coming again with a former foreign exchange student from Japan who is coming out to visit us at Christmastime.  I am glad that we were able to go to the temple and fulfill Ben's wish to take his friend to see the Christmas display.

 

The next day was the Christmas devotional.  I honestly don't remember when I first began watching this particular devotional.  Maybe it was during my mission; perhaps it was sometime in the early 90's; but whenever my participation began, the Christmas devotional has helped me to set a better tone for the season.  To be reminded by the prophet and his counselors the importance of keeping Christ in the forefront of the festivities has been helpful to me.  The "run up" to this year's event took an unexpected turn when I learned it was entitled "Christmas Devotional" instead of "First Presidency Christmas Devotional."  A few days before the event, I came across an article in the Deseret News where a spokesman for the Church was quoted saying: "While we anticipate that a member of the First Presidency will participate in the program, it has been decided to give other church leaders the opportunity to speak at the annual Christmas devotional" ("LDS Church alters Christmas devotional tradition," Deseret News website, Dec. 4, 2013).  I admit to being intrigued by who might be speaking, but since I could find no other official word on the participants, I decided to go with the flow and see where it lead.  It also happened that the scheduled night of the devotional coincided with the final temple preparation class for the latest group I've been teaching.  The week previous, Jennifer and I invited the group to come over to the house early for the devotional (since it started at 5 here on the West coast and our classes have begun at 6:30) and we would have desert and commence with the lesson afterward.

 

I very much enjoyed the talks.  Like my conference experience, I learned something from all four messages, but noticed there were two that stood out specifically to me.  The first was Primary General President Rosemary M. Wixom's talk "What Happened Next?" (click this link to see and read the talk).  The beginning of her talk about the "Christmas surprise" her mother would sew and how she was able to peek one year and learn what the surprise was in advance reminded me of how my brother Aaron and I would wait until Mom and Dad had gone to bed before sneaking down the stairs to see the presents under the tree.  We were never ones to go hunting through the house prior to Christmas morning, searching for the secret hiding places Mom had the gifts; we found satisfaction in being the first to see the presents before any other sibling.  I don't remember if anyone finally beat us to the punch, but we had a pretty good consecutive streak going before we were unseated from the top of the leaderboard.  The bulk of her talk centered around the experience a Cub Scout den leader from Gilbert, Arizona had as she taught the story of Christmas to her den of 8-year-olds.  After talking about the initial story of the birth of Jesus, one of the boys asked, "Well, what happened next?"  Which caused her to relate more of the story of Jesus' life until the boy's continually asked question brought her to describe His ultimate Atoning sacrifice.  When the den leader finished relating this portion of the life of the Savior, the boy said in wonder, "He did that for me?"

 

This final question caused me to reflect on hymn number 193: I Stand All Amazed: "Oh, it is wonderful that he should care for me Enough to die for me!"  It really is an amazing thing to realize that someone loves us so much that He would willingly give His life in order for us to truly live eternally.  While we celebrate Jesus' birth at this time of year, it is important to also remember His life, His mission, and His Atoning sacrifice.  I also enjoyed Elder Russell M. Nelson's address about Jesus being the Prince of Peace.  Using scriptural quotations of the Savior (which were read by someone else), Elder Nelson discussed the different ways that Jesus can bring peace into our lives if we will reach out and earnestly seek Him (click this link to see the talk).

I hope that I can continue to feel the spirit of these and the other talks given at the devotional throughout this Christmas season.  Sometimes it seems so easy to get caught up in the commercialism and the hustle and bustle of buying and preparing.  I am grateful for leaders who take the time to listen to the Spirit and prepare talks such as these to help us to keep this time of year in perspective.