December 18-24

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The story of the birth of the Savior is lovely. As I read about the very humble birth of a baby that would change the world, I thought of how simple and quietly He lived for a majority of His life. I think about the fact that His full-time ministry was only three years long. He never had the internet to spread His message quickly across the world. His leaders were flawed, simple men. The apostate church hated Him. He was killed, and His followers were scattered and scared. The early Christian church might not have looked like much, but we know how the story ends.

As I ponder His birth, I think about the fact that a grand majority of the world had no idea what had occurred that night. They went about their business the next day, oblivious to the miraculous event that happened in their lifetime. In the terms of the world, the story of Christ’s was a quiet one.

The Come Follow Me manual asks us a question in the introduction: “How did He fulfill His mission of redemption in the accounts you have read?” This question can be a powerful one because of two reasons: we each have been given a mission of redemption, and we were born to emulate the Savior. I wonder how the world would change if we could all wake up tomorrow and realize that we were meant to be a type of Christ, just like all of the people we read about in the scriptures. I can think of no more powerful way to celebrate Christmas than to emulate how Christ fulfilled His mission of redemption.

Perhaps your story seems quiet still. Perhaps it will seem quiet up until the day you die. However, if we work to follow the Savior consciously and purposefully, we will likewise change the world. Nobody can have the effect He did, but if we tap into His power to fulfill what He would have us do, we will be amazed on the other side when the Lord shows us the difference we made.

So how did He fulfill His mission, and how can we follow Him?

He knew who He was

There was a time when Jesus was young, and His parents lost Him. When they found Him, He responded to them in this manner.

Luke 2:49 And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?

There is an entire sermon there. However, I want to pull your attention to one particular piece of that sermon. Christ, from a very young age, knew who He was. He had a testimony of who His Father was, and He had a testimony that He was meant to do important things. So while everyone else was celebrating a festival in Jerusalem, His knowledge influenced Him and He found Himself in the temple. 

We have the same Father. Your spirit was born of a Heavenly Father, and we were given important tasks to complete while here on earth. 

The first part of this principle, namely our innate divinity, holds significant implications for our lives, but only if we actually believe it. Perhaps you have sung, “I am a Child of God,” since the time you were little, but do you know it? Does the surety of who you are influence your confidence in the sense that you don’t need outside validation? Does a knowledge of your Parentage give you peace and faith because you understand that God is your biggest supporter?

It is very pleasant to internalize that you are a child of God, but beyond that, we have a literal responsibility to learn of our divine heritage. You can gain a testimony of The Book of Mormon. You can gain a testimony of the prophet. Gaining a testimony of those things takes effort. Throughout your life, different gospel principles are going to finally “hit home” in your heart and begin to influence your decisions and feelings. Purposefully seek a testimony of who you are. Pray about it. Read about it. Try very hard to listen to what He has to say about it. Seek out a knowledge of where you came from. When we truly know where we came from, we are given power and serenity to do what the Lord would have us do because we’re no longer concerned about whether we matter or have a place in the world. 

The second part of this principle, namely that we have important tasks to complete, is also a testimony we should seek on purpose. And “important” is a very interesting word in this context. It may not look important. You may die without ever knowing which of your activities were important. It doesn’t mean that you should seek ways to have tons of influence in the world. When you have a knowledge that the Savior has important things for you to do, it leads to one overarching, but very simple action: seeking the Spirit. When you seek the Spirit, your life may look like this: you live an incredibly normal life without any outwardly extravagant moments, just living your life making small sacrifices and trying to be loving. However, when you get to the other side, your eyes are opened to the times that you were led by the Spirit without even knowing it. You had no idea that certain decisions you made led to such momentous occasions for the building of God’s kingdom because you didn’t even consciously realize that the Spirit was guiding you. I always go back to Paul writing letters from prison; I always wonder if Paul had any idea how many Christians would read those letters and be changed by them.

The Savior knew who He was, and it affected how He chose to live. He didn’t go out and seek “important” tasks, He simply sought to do the will of His Father. We can emulate that.

He utilized the power of His Father

Christ utilized the power of His Father and performed miracles. This particular emulation, just like with any emulation, will be slightly different simply because we are not Him. Christ was perfect and so accessing the power of God to do what He needed to do wasn’t an issue. He wielded that power masterfully.

We are not so perfect, and this can lead to dams that prevent the full power of our Father from entering into our lives. BUT! Because Christ was perfect, He performed the atonement. What this truly means is that we can be perfect too. Because of what Christ did, our sins are washed away and we are made perfect. Because of Christ’s atonement, we can have all the access we need to perform what we are called to do. There is no reason why we have to be inhibited from performing anything the Lord would have us do because He has the ability to make us perfect.

Utilizing that power may look “quieter” than how Christ did it. We may never be called to calm a storm or heal a blind man. However, we can access Christ’s atonement, become perfect, and perform miracles that are just as powerful because Christ wants to empower us to build His kingdom. Quieting the personal storms of others can be just as powerful as what Christ did on the Sea of Galilee. Christ calmed a storm so that His followers could witness who He was; He needed that specific task, but through the power of the atonement, our tasks can have far reaching consequences as well. Relieving spiritual blindness with something as simple as bearing your testimony one month or teaching the wisdom of a gospel principle in a couple of sentences with a teenager can have effects that reach just as far as Christ’s miracles. 

Perhaps that sounds blasphemous, to suggest that the work we do can have an effect that in any way equals that of the Savior. Let me try to better explain myself. I am powerful because the Savior cleanses me and works through me; it is not my miracle. It is still His miracle. He is simply utilizing me as a channel. The work He performs through me can be as powerful as many of the works He performed in the scriptures because it is still His work. He chooses to work through His children so that He can build the kingdom on both ends of His work, but He cannot work through us if we are putting ourselves down and belittling our abilities and making ourselves quieter on purpose. We have important work to do, and He is asking us to use His power to do it.

He was willing

There were many moments of willingness from the Savior. The first one that comes to mind is in Gethsemane. He did not want to suffer the atonement, but He was willing. But another one comes to mind as well. 

Mosiah 3:5 For behold, the time cometh, and is not far distant, that with power, the Lord Omnipotent who reigneth, who was, and is from all eternity to all eternity, shall come down from heaven among the children of men, and shall dwell in a tabernacle of clay, and shall go forth amongst men, working mighty miracles, such as healing the sick, raising the dead, causing the lame to walk, the blind to receive their sight, and the deaf to hear, and curing all manner of diseases.

The Lord was already Omnipotent and reigning. Surely He needed a body, but He did not need the Plan of Salvation in the same sense that we needed it. He had already achieved His full stature. He did not need growth or trials or pain or any of the things that we needed. He was already exalted. And yet, the Plan of Salvation was completely void without Him. We couldn’t get what we needed (mortal life with all of its nuances and purposes) without Him agreeing to leave and come down and condescend to be among us. And He didn’t even come as the King that He was. He came lowly so that He could sacrifice and perform the tasks that needed to be completed..

Christ was willing because He loved us. Look at all He sacrificed just so that He could come down here and sacrifice some more. Are we willing? Are we truly willing to sacrifice just a little bit more? Perhaps this sacrifice looks like a little bit of free time to develop a talent or maybe this sacrifice looks like a grudge that we feel we deserve. Have we told Him we’re willing? Have you knelt down and told Him that you want to do what He sent you here to do? Have you asked Him to lead you along towards those tasks?

I am grateful for a Savior who chose to condescend because He loved me enough to sacrifice. He asks me to love my brothers and sisters enough to be willing to do what He needs me to do. And what’s so interesting is that when we compare our sacrifices to how He blesses us for our willingness, the sacrifice can longer even be defined as a sacrifice. The very things we let go of become the very things that bring exaltation.