Christmas in the Book of Mormon

The Jews in the Old World were not the only people awaiting the Messiah. On the American continent many of the Nephites eagerly anticipated the day. But there were also many people who didn’t believe, and they began to scorn and persecute the believers. The persecution became so bad the wicked people proclaimed that if the sign of the coming of the Lord did not occur by a certain day, they would kill all the believers.


Samuel the Lamanite prophesies
of the birth of Jesus Christ.

The prophet at the time, Nephi, was filled with sorrow at the wickedness around him. For years he had tried to help the people but so many of them refused to believe and repent. Now as they issued their mandate, he prayed mightily all day long in behalf of his people asking that the Lord would be born so that the righteous who awaited the Messiah would not be killed. After hours of prayer he heard a voice saying, “Lift up your head and be of good cheer; for behold, the time is at hand, and on this night shall the sign be given, and on the morrow come I into the world, to show unto the world that I will fulfil all that which I have caused to be spoken by the mouth of my holy prophets” (3 Nephi 1:13).


As promised that night the sun went down, but there was no darkness. It must have been a strange experience to watch the sun disappear beyond the horizon and yet the sky remain as light as if it were noontime. The believers rejoiced as they recognized the sign given them by Samuel the Lamanite. But those who had threatened to kill the believers were frightened and many of them fell to the ground as if they were dead. Fear filled them for they knew that they had been wrong, and they worried about what would now happen to them. That entire night the light continued and the next morning the people watched as the sun rose on an already bright sky.

I love to think about this story and reflect on what it teaches me not only about the bitrh of Jesus Christ but about me being born again in Him. When Christ has been born again within us there is no longer darkness. When we have experienced the mighty change of heart, even a situation thatthe world says should bring great darkness into our lives such as the death of a loved one or any other tragedy is mitigated by the light of Christ within us. When a person loves and trusts in Jesus Christ, there is always light shining brightly.

The Christmas Star



Picture by
 ©Debbie Yarra  www.yarraimages.com



I’ve always thought it very fitting that the Light of the World was introduced by a bright, new star.

Close your eyes for a moment and imagine being in a dark, dark room when suddenly a speck of light appears. Slowly the light grows until the room is illuminated as if by noon-day sun. Even in your imagination you can feel the light bringing with it hope and love. It is amazing how much positive feeling light introduces to a dark place, and all we have to do to get rid of the dark is to let in the light.

On that first Christmas night, far above and untouched by anything worldly, the new star pierced the darkness testifying to all nations that hope had come.

But this symbol is more than metaphor. Christ is the Light of the World. His light, the Light of Christ, still shines to guide wise men and wise women to find Him and live forever in a place where there is no darkness but only light and the love and joy that accompany that Light.

New Light

I love the symbolism in the scriptures and today I found something I’ve never noticed before. In the account of Adam and Eve being expelled from the Garden of Eden, we are told that after they left, God placed “at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life” (Genesis 3:24).

The Cherubim (The “s” on the end in the Genesis account is a King James translation error because “im” is already plural in Hebrew.) “turn every way” so they guard the north, the south, the east, and the west. But we are specifically told that they were placed at the east. From this scholars have assumed that Adam and Eve were expelled to the east. But why not expelled to the north or south or west? And why, when so much other detail is left out, are we told the specific place in which the Cherubim were placed? The story would be easily understood by just saying they were cast out.

The reason details matter is always the same. When there are details, God is trying to teach us something. And what is He teaching us here? By casting them out to the east, He sent them in the direction of the light. He had to cast them out because of their disobedience, but because He loved them, He sent them on a path that moved them toward the sun.

Thus even though mankind has fallen from paradise or been cast out of Eden, if we will walk toward The Light, the place where the Son rises, we will find the Promised Land and be safe again.

Light to See By

One of the reasons I love Isaiah so much is that he speaks in pictures. By that I mean that what he teaches I often can see in my head in a picture. For example in Isaiah 50:11 Isaiah says, “Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow.”

I’ve never done it myself, but I once watched my brother make a fire using flint and steel. It took awhile but as he struck the flint and steel together tiny sparks would fly from his hands and eventually they ignited the kindling he had gathered. But the sparks themselves were ever so small. In a dark room they might have looked bigger, but they still wouldn’t have been enough to generate light to see anything in the room let alone guide you along a dark path.

The picture I see when I read this verse is God on one side offering us the Light of Christ which shines like sun at noon day. This light brightly illuminates the dark path of life that all of us have to navigate in order to return to God. On the other side of the picture I see people (sometimes my stubborn self) turning their backs on the proffered sunlight and proudly working to strike flint and steel and make their own sparks to try to illuminate their way through the path of life. It is a lot of work to keep striking that flint and steel and yet they keep at it, smirks on their faces as they walk by way of the sparks they are creating. They are doing it their way and are so proud. Needless to say they get lost very fast!

When I catch myself leaving the realm of humility, I think of this picture and remember the words, “This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow.” That brings me back to the Light!

Flint and Steel

Once long ago I watched my Boy Scout brother in the back yard attempting to make sparks with flint and steel. He had gathered a small pile of dead leaves and twigs and was determined to burn them. I watched as he laboriously struck the flint against the steel. At first he’d strike and nothing would happen. But after a great deal of effort he began to get the hang of it and small, fleeting sparks appeared. The next challenge was to get the elusive sparks to catch the leaves and twigs on fire. That too, took awhile, but finally the little pile of refuse burst into flame then immediately died out leaving nothing but a drizzle of smoke.

I think of that incident every time I read Isaiah 50:11. In that verse the Lord warns, “Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow.” If you’ve ever been without electricity on a stormy, dark night and tried to navigate by the light of a single candle, this verse will mean more to you. A single candle doesn’t give off much light and a spark gives off even less. Going through the dark, stormy circumstances of life with only the sparks I can kindle seems terrifying. On the other hand, the Savior promised, “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12). The choice is mine; Walk by the light of my own puny sparks or walk in the noon-bright light of Jesus Christ.

But it isn’t just the amount of light that this verse is talking about. Trying to generate my own sparks takes an enormous amount of effort. I learned that from watching my brother. But to walk in the light of Jesus Christ only requires my submission to Him which means more light with less effort!

On a practical level, what Isaiah has taught me in this verse is that if I am feeling overwhelmed or stressed or over-anxious, I stop and examine what I am doing and invariably I find I am trying to make my own light. On those occasions, I drop the flint and steel, take a deep breath, and let in The Light. When I let God take over, things work out. Walking in His Light is so much easier than trying to produce my own light.

The Light That Leads

At one point in the New Testament, Jesus and His disciples are traveling through Galilee into Capernaum. When they reach Capernaum the Savior asks the disciples what it was they were disputing about while they were traveling. Mark tells us that the disciples, “Held their peace” (Mark 9:34). I can imagine the scene as the disciples lowered their heads and awkwardly averted looking into the eyes of the Savior. The reason they remained silent and didn’t want to answer is because they had been arguing about who was the greatest among them and they knew they shouldn’t have been doing that. It is interesting to me that their own hearts convicted them, not the Savior.

From time to time we all get caught up in doing something that we know isn’t right. And we know at the moment we are doing it that it isn’t right. How do we know? Because our hearts tell us it isn’t right. We don’t need a mother standing over us wagging her finger and saying, “No, no, no!” Each of us has been blessed with the Light of Christ (Moroni 7: 15-16) and that Light lets us know if what we are doing is right or wrong. If we heed that Light it is like Lehi’s Liahona. It will guide us to the things we should do. If we consistently disobey the light, it soon goes out and we are left with a guilty conscience and in darkness.

Learning to listen and obey our own internal promptings is one of the most important things we can do in life. We are wired with all the voltage we need. We just have to use the Light.

Agency and Others

When we understand agency it opens up whole new vistas of gospel knowledge. As I learned these things, it changed how I parented. I realized that I wasn’t the monitor of right and wrong. That’s the work of the Spirit. I also realized that when I manipulated or coerced or lectured too much I created so much "noise" my children couldn’t hear the Spirit speaking to them. My job wasn't to "pour" knowledge into them, but to create an environment where the Spirit could teach and direct them.
One of my first experiences with this was especially interesting. Breana was always a picky eater and I tried everything I could to make sure she got the proper nutrition. One day we came home a little late from running errands. Quickly I made her a tuna sandwich and then, to encourage her to eat it in time to leave for kindergarten, told her she could have ice cream as soon as it was finished. Then I went to the nursery to put the baby down for a nap.
Seconds later Breana came into the nursery and told me the sandwich was gone and could she have her ice cream. I knew she hadn’t eaten the sandwich, and at this point I would have normally begun to lecture her about honesty, the importance of good nutrition, being obedient, etc. But I had just learned about agency and realized that the light of Christ was working in her own heart and telling her what to do so instead of lecturing, I looked her in the eyes and said, "Breana, you know what is right and you know what is wrong." Then I went back to the baby.
What happened next astounded me. When I lectured, Breana always responded with a corresponding fit. You know how it goes, arguing that grows into demanding and down on the floor kicking and screaming. But this day she stared back at me as if I’d learned how to fly and quietly walked out of the room.
I finished putting the baby down and then filled with curiosity at the silence walked back to the dining room where I found Breana sitting on the floor Indian style eating the sandwich right out of the garbage can. While I try not to think about the sanitation aspects of that moment, I do think about what happened. Breana’s conscience (the light of Christ) led her to do what I had tried on countless occasions to do and had failed at. To this day (she is now in her late 30s!) she tells me how much she hated it when I told her it was up to her. She fast learned that it is much easier to argue with someone you think is imposing something upon you than it is to argue with your own heart. I learned that instead of helping my children, my behavior actually interfered with their ability to hear the Spirit speaking to them.
As we trust the Spirit to guide and facilitate that Spirit to speak to our children, spouse, friends, co-workers or anyone else we are dealing with, things work out better. Yes, sometimes they will choose incorrectly, but even that can be a great learning experience if we allow it to be.

Agency--What It Is

Agency is one of the most important principles of the gospel and also one of the most misunderstood. So let’s start with a definition. Agency is the ability to make choices. But Elder Packer explained that all references to agency in the scriptures refer to a specific kind of agency–moral agency. Moral agency is the ability to make choices between good and evil. Frequently in the Church we confuse the principle of moral agency with the principle of freedom. Freedom is the ability to act on the choices we have made. For example, if I am choosing between drinking apple juice and orange juice, I use my non-moral agency but if I am deciding between coffee and milk I am using my moral agency because there is a commandment involved. If I choose grapefruit juice, but there is none available, my freedom is involved. As much as I might want it, I can't have it because there isn't any.
There are several reasons this designation is important. One of the most important is that there is ALWAYS a spiritual consequence when we use our moral agency. There are no spiritual consequences to using our non-moral agency or freedom. The negative consequences of bad moral choices are obvious, but I said ALWAYS a consequence. In King Benjamin’s great speech he tells us that the Lord requires "that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth immediately bless you" (Mosiah 2:24). The immediate blessing that comes from obeying God is increased faith. Faith is a gift of God predicated upon the law of obedience! (See D&C 130:20-21). As we grow in faith, we then are blessed with more spiritual gifts and increased gospel knowledge.
Another reason this designation is important to understand is that agency cannot be taken away from us. (I know you’ve heard that it can, but the person is using the word agency to mean freedom.) Lucifer fought a battle in the pre-mortal world to take away our agency and failed. He is not going to waste time doing that again. Instead he works on taking away our freedom. If he can limit our choices or through peer pressure, addiction, or other means entice us to negative choices, he has us in his grasp. Technically, we still have our agency. We can choose to repent and return to the light. However, as we loose freedom, it becomes more and more difficult to exercise our agency to follow the Lord.
Agency, then, is a mental process. It is the means God has given us to choose our way back to Him and returning to Him is done one little choice at a time.

PS - There is a wonderful autobiography in which Victor Frankl explains how he came to understand these principles while in a Nazi concentration camp. It is short and well worth the read. The title is Man's Search For Meaning.