31. Glad Tidings of Great Joy

A bishopric message written on November 28, 2000, for the December 2000 issue of the Bountiful Twentieth Ward Newsette.

Christmas. What a glorious time of year! A time when love and hope and light fill our darkened world for a brief moment. A season when generosity and good will and charity enlarge our souls just a little more.

And all this because a baby was born. In every age the glad tidings of great joy center in one pivotal truth: “the great and wonderful love made manifest by the Father and the Son in the coming of the Redeemer into the world” (D&C 138:3).

To the shepherds of ancient Judea: “I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10–11).

To the prophets of ancient America: “I am come to declare unto you the glad tidings of great joy. . . . For behold, the time cometh . . . that with power, the Lord Omnipotent . . . shall come down from heaven” (Mosiah 3:3–5).

The witness of the resurrected Christ Himself: “This is the gospel [literally the good news, the glad tidings] which I have given you—that I came into the world to do the will of my Father” (3 Nephi 27:13).

And in our own day: “This is the gospel, the glad tidings, which the voice out of heaven bore record unto us—That he came into the world” (D&C 76:40–41).

Why? “To be crucified for the world, and to bear the sins of the world, and to sanctify the world, and to cleanse it from all unrighteousness; that through him all might be saved” (D&C 76:41–42). “That through his atonement, and by obedience to the principles of the gospel, mankind might be saved” (D&C 138:4). Good news indeed!

I close this message, my witness that Love Personified came into the world that first Christmas 2000 years ago, with a little Christmas poem I wrote some years ago:

He came,
The one bright perfect Light,
He came
To chase away the misted darkness of the night
And make my narrow pathway plain.

He died,
The sinless Son of God,
He died
To ransom me from sin's exacting, heavy rod,
And death, my death to set aside.

He lives,
The wondrous name of Love,
He lives
Who lifts my earth-stained soul, now cleansed, to home above,
And glory there forever gives.