What Did the 1st Christmas Feel like?

We had a unique experience in Seminary the other day when our classes combined and were blessed to hear the words of the student's mothers.  They shared with us what it felt like for them to welcome their children into their homes.  Here are some of the words that they used to describe their feelings at that time.

PEACEFUL, HOPEFUL, LOVE, EXHAUSTED, RELIEVED, BEAUTIFUL, THRILLED, SWEET, CONCERNED, OVERWHELMED, INSPIRED, MOTIVATED, TREATED (NOT TRICKED), HUMBLED, AWESTRUCK, CONNECTED TO GOD, WORTHWHILE, PRIVILEGED, GRATEFUL, EXCITED, HAPPY, JOYFUL, ANXIOUS, INADEQUATE, BLESSED BEYOND MEASURE, FULFILLED, DEVOTED, COMMITTED.

I wonder if you can begin to identify now with how Mary and Joseph must have felt when the baby Jesus came into their lives.  Take a few minutes to watch this video about the birth of the Savior.

 Elder Holland: Dramatic Reading, “Christmas Doesn’t Come From a Store”

As a parent, I compare those feelings (which I have had with each succeeding child) with what Joseph must have felt as he moved through the streets of a city not his own, with not a friend or kinsman in sight, or anyone willing to extend a helping hand. In these very last and most painful hours of her “confinement” Mary had ridden or walked approximately one hundred miles from Nazareth in Galilee to Bethlehem in Judea.  Surely Joseph must have wept at her silent courage.  Now, alone and unnoticed, they had to descend from human company to a stable, a grotto full of animals, there to bring forth the Son of God.

I wonder what emotions Joseph might have had as he cleared away the dung and debris.  I wondered if he felt the sting of tears as he hurriedly tried to find the cleanest straw and hold the animals back.  I wonder if he wondered: “Could there be a more unhealthy, a more despicable circumstance in which a child could be born?  Is this a place fit for a king?  Should the mother of the Son of God be asked to enter the valley of the shadow of death in such a foul and unfamiliar place as this?  Is it wrong to wish her some comfort?  Is it right He should be born here?

But I am certain Joseph did not mutter and Mary did not wail.  They knew a great deal and did the best they could.  Perhaps these parents knew even then that in the beginning of His mortal life, as well as in the end, this baby son born to them would have to descend beneath every human pain and disappointment.  He would do so to help those who also felt they had been born without advantage.

I’ve thought of Mary, too, this most favored mortal woman in the history of the world, who as a mere child received an angel. It is here I stumble, here that I grasp for the feelings a mother has when she knows she has conceived a living soul, feels life quicken and grow within her womb, and carries a child to delivery.  At such times fathers stand aside and watch, but mothers feel and never forget.  Again, I’ve thought of Luke’s careful phrasing about that holy night in Bethlehem:

“The days were accomplished that she…brought forth her firstborn son, and (she) wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and (she) laid him in a manger.  Those brief pronouns trumpet in our ears that, second only to the child himself, Mary is the chiefest figure, the regal queen, mother of mothers – holding center stage in this grandest of all dramatic moments.  And those same pronouns also trumpet that, save for her beloved husband, she was very much alone.

I have wondered if this young woman, something of a child herself, here bearing her first baby, might have wished for her mother, or her sister, a friend, to be near her through the labor.  Surely the birth of such a son as this should command the aid and attention of every midwife in Judea.  We all wish that someone could have held her hand, cooled her brow, and when the ordeal was over, given her rest in crisp, cool linen.

But it was not to be so.  With only Joseph’s inexperienced assistance, she herself brought forth her firstborn son, wrapped him in the little clothes she had knowingly brought on her journey, and perhaps laid him on a pillow of hay. Then, on both sides of the veil, a heavenly host broke into song.  ”Glory to God in the Highest”, they sang, “and on earth, peace among men of good will.”  But except for these heavenly witnesses, these three were alone:  Joseph, Mary and the baby to be named, Jesus.

At this focal point of all human history, a point illuminated by a new star in the heavens revealed for just such a purpose, probably no other mortal watched – none but a poor young carpenter, a beautiful virgin mother, and silent stabled animals who had not the power to utter the sacredness they had seen.

First and Forever there was a family! without toys or trees or tinsel – with a BABY – that’s how Christmas began.