You Were Not There

I can't believe we are 4 days from Christmas! I'm feeling like we haven't emphasized the birth of our Savior enough around here! Sure, we've had the Family Home Evening lesson about the birth of our Savior. We've read Lainey our very accurate board book describing the very first Christmas (love it, by the way. Check it out here). We checked out a creche exhibit. We're faithfully reading our Christmas countdown book for the first time ever. But it seems that this holiday is slipping by without many thoughts of thanksgiving and gratitude on my part.

I've avoided it for years, but the business of this time of year that seems to overwhelm everyone else finally caught up with me. The funny thing is that I was 98% done with my Christmas shopping in November (yes, exactly 98, I calculated... okay not really). So I don't know what I'm so busy doing, but I've been busy. I've joined the club. And I want to get out! I want to go back to quiet Decembers spent with family and time to bake (and the energy to bake). I want to cuddle with my family and watch White Christmas in its entirety without falling asleep (twice, we've tried twice and failed to get through it). I want to remember the Miracle that has brought me Salvation, the Miracle that changed the world and changed me.

Tyler and I were listening to The Forgotten Carols. As we were listening, Tyler mentioned that his favorite of all the 'forgotten carols' was the Sheperd's song. I listened more intently as the CD continued to track 3, listened to what my husband found to be so remarkable. As this particular carol goes, a sheperd had fallen asleep and when he awoke his friends had a remarkable tale to tell him.

They said the angels told them
About the new-born king.
They had a star to guide them.
They heard the heavens sing.
They said that when they found Him,
They knew they'd never been the same.

And isn't that so true? When we've finally 'found Him' we truly are never the same, are we? And I began to see why Tyler loved this song so much.

And, yes, I did believe them
Though I'd not seen a thing.
I did not go to Bethlehem
Or hear the angels sing,
But there was something magic in the air
That made me feel as if I had been there.
I knew that as the world
Moves on through time,
There would be more stories just like mine
About the souls who've chosen to believe
In something that they never got to see.

I wasn't in Bethlehem just over 2000 years ago, I didn't walk the earth with our Savior, and I didn't see the pain He suffered in the Garden, but like this dear sheperd, I know He was born humbly, perhaps the humblest of all births, and that He came to this earth as the Savior of it. I am a soul who has chosen to believe in something that I never got to see.

And do you think you'll join us
Though you've not seen a thing?
You were not there in Bethlehem
Nor heard the angels sing.
But if you feel the spirit in the air,
Then, just like me, you'll know that
He was here...He was here
The king of king and Lord of lords was here,
He was here...He was here.
And He will come again, for He was here.

So for the next 4 days, I will "seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written" and remember the ultimate gift given to me each and every day. I, like you, celebrate my testimony that He was here and He will come again.