I love Christmas for a lot of reasons, and one of them is that I get the chance to attend a Messiah sing-in…or is it a “sing along”? Whichever, it’s so glorious to stand up and sing the “Halleluiah Chorus” at the top of my lungs and have my very “littlest angel” voice (as Michael McClain made reference to in his wonderful program, “The Forgotten Carols”) drowned out by the several hundred other people in the hall.
And then there are those most precious of all words, “For unto us a child is born, unto a son is given…”(Isaiah 9:6). I rejoice in those words in unison with others, singing my heart out.
I’ve taken the prophets’ invitation to put myself in the words of the scripture, and I sing the words as I have felt my Lord’s tender invitation to sing them:
For unto me a child is born! Unto me a son is given. And the government [of my life] shall be upon His shoulders, and [I shall call His name] Wonderful! Counsellor! The Mighty God! The Everlasting Father! The Prince of Peace! (Isaiah 9:6)
I was a member of His restored Church for several decades before I was in a “preparation to hear the Word” (Alma 32:6). In other words, before I was humble enough to take the gift of my Father’s Beloved Son and make Him my own in such a wholehearted manner. It was like scales fell from my eyes and I saw the truth that He was born to be my own Beloved Son, born unto me—into my heart and mind—with all the joy and hope and counsel and comfort and peace I could even begin to comprehend.
He waited for me to look to Him as my very own wonderful counselor, my mighty God—mighty enough to save us all, even me—my Savior, my Father (Mosiah 5:7), and my dearest Friend.
In fact, my everything.
When that day came, not only did my recovery from the effects of the fall begin, but redemption dawned in my heart, and to this day—through thick and thin (most literally)—it has not left me.
He has not left me.
He never will. (John 14:18)
~Colleen H.
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