This Christmas season, we have the opportunity to reflect on the birth of our Savior and his example. One of the videos the LDS Church put out for this Christmas season makes us really think about how much we truly need our Savior. (https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2015-12-1000-why-we-need-a-savior--a-christmas-message-about-our-savior-jesus-christ-asaviorisborn?category=topics/christmas&lang=eng) If we
didn’t have a Savior, our
very lives would be meaningless. We would come to Earth to live and die for nothing.
We would make one mistake, maybe a minor sin and everything would be lost for
us. For “no unclean thing can dwell in the presence of God.” We wouldn’t have
the means or ability to repent and we could never return to the presence of our
Heavenly Father again. We would be without love, without
faith, without hope. Our loved ones would pass on and we would never be able to
see them again. They would be lost to us forever. In a world without a Savior,
why even bother? What would be the point of anything? We would have no one to
look up to, no example to follow, no means whereby we could repent. No one to
turn to, to comfort us, no one would be able to understand us. There would be
no way we could live again; no way we could see our loved ones again.
As Elder
Holland said; “What a plight! The entire human race in free fall—every man,
woman, and child in it physically tumbling toward permanent death, spiritually
plunging toward eternal anguish. Is that what life was meant to be? Is this the
grand finale of the human experience? Are we all just hanging in a cold canyon
somewhere in an indifferent universe, each of us searching for a toehold, each
of us seeking for something to grip—with nothing but the feeling of sand
sliding under our fingers, nothing to save us, nothing to hold on to, much less
anything to hold on to us? Is our only purpose in life an empty existential
exercise—simply to leap as high as we can, hang on for our prescribed three
score years and ten, then fail and fall, and keep falling forever?
The answer to those questions is
an unequivocal and eternal NO!”
There
is hope because we have a Savior, even Jesus Christ. We need a Savior! Oh! How
desperately we need a Him every hour! In
2 Nephi 2:8, it reads “Wherefore,
how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the
earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence
of God, save it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy
Messiah, who layeth down his life according to the flesh, and taketh it again
by the power of the Spirit, that he may bring to pass the resurrection of the
dead, being the first that should rise.”
Helaman 5:9 adds “…remember that there is no
other way nor means whereby man can be saved, only through the atoning blood of
Jesus Christ, who shall come; yea, remember that he cometh to redeem the
world.”
We need
a Savior in order for us to repent through His
Atonement, be cleansed and
return to our Father’s presence again someday. We need a Savior for He understands
us perfectly and is always there for us. He knows every worry, every pain,
every sorrow, and every fear. He also knows every joy and every success;
he knows our hopes and desires. If we just reach out for Him, He is always
there, ready to take our hand and lead us along. In his talk, Because He Came,
President Monson said; “Because He came to earth, we have a perfect example to
follow…Because He came, there is meaning to our mortal existence. Because He
came, we know how to reach out to those in trouble or distress, wherever they
may be. Because He came, death has lost its sting, the grave its victory. We
will live again because He came. Because He came and paid for our sins, we have
the opportunity to gain eternal life…”
We all need a
Savior and I am so grateful for Christ and his atoning sacrifice. I am very
grateful for His peace, comfort, love and all that He’s done for us. I’m
grateful that because of Him we have hope and our lives have meaning that we
can be with our families forever and dwell in God’s presence again. I am grateful for this Christmas season when we can celebrate His birth and reflect on what He has done for us all through the year. As the apostles say in the Living Christ, "God be thanked for the matchless gift of His divine Son."
