A Chrsitmas Theme

On the 11th of this month, Eliza and I took Leslie and Emma, her little brother and sister, to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert. I think that's when my Christmas changed this year.

As many know, the Savior, Jesus Christ, was not really born on Christmas Day. We find from the ancient scriptures as well as modern revelation that He was really born at the beginning of the Hebrew year, being around April for us. So, I've never been able to see the reason for celebrating Christmas in December--until now.

The guests were Natalie Cole and David McCullough. Natalie Cole, of course, was the guest singer. However, it was David McCullough's performance that hit me. He began talking about how the Hymn "O Little Town of Bethlehem" was written. A pastor visited the Holy Land, and was inspired by the areas around Bethlehem where the shepherd would have been visited by angels.

When he returned home, he wrote the verse for the hymn, and asked his organist to compose the music for it for their Christmas Mass. He tried and tried, and nothing came to him, all confused. Then, in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve, he woke up from his sleep with "an angel's strain" in his head. He quickly wrote it down, then built on it. That is how this beautiful piece of music was written.

But there is more to the story. During the Christmas of 1941, Winston Churchill made a secret trip to the United States. There, he and Pres. Roosevelt together lit up the Christmas Tree at the White House on Christmas Eve. Each talked about the current war and how Christmas is a time to celebrate and feel peace. Churchill stated that "Here in the midst of war,...we have tonight the peace of the Spirit in each cottage and every generous heart. Here, then, one night only, should be a brightly lighted island of happiness and peace." Then on the next morning, Churchill went to church and heard the hymn "O Little Town of Bethlehem," for the first time.

There is one line from the first stanza of that hymn saying, "Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light." That was the message that Churchill gave. That was the story of how the music to the hymn was written. That was, for me, the theme of that Christmas Concert, as well as all of Christmas this year.

On the 21st, I made some comment as Eliza and I were waking up. In response, she said that we were at the shortest day of the year. That got me thinking about two things. The first was for my research, of which I won't bore you with that. But the second was that, as the shortest day of the year, it was, when all is told, the darkest day of the year. Here we are, in the darkest week of the year, and what holiday do we celebrate? Christmas, the birth of the Savior, where in this world of toil and trouble, we see a gleam of hope and peace. In this astronomically darkest period for us, we see, symbolically, the light of the birth and resurrection of the Holy Savior, the Everlasting Light.