Sabbath Devotional :: This Glorious News

Image: Carl Bloch, *The Shepherds and the Angel*

January has always been my least favorite month. After several weeks of excitement and anticipation for the holidays, suddenly it is all over. The tree needs to be taken down. The decorations need to be packed up and put away. Life resumes the normal day-to-day routines. Winter no longer feels festive — it just feels cold and dreary and long. The widely spread messages of love and goodwill that are so abundant during the holiday season seem to disappear, forgotten, until Thanksgiving comes around again. In addition to the after-Christmas letdown, January is also a time that holds particularly painful memories for me, which has resulted in each New Year being accompanied by stinging reminders and an undercurrent of grief.

This past December, as I was preparing myself for the imminent and inevitable arrival of January, I began looking for anything that I could hold onto to help buoy me up in the weeks ahead. As is often the case, I found what I needed in the form of music. I sing in a local choir, and for our Christmas concert we sang several selections from Handel’s Messiah, along with an assortment of lesser-known Christmas carols. As we rehearsed, I was frequently struck by the messages in the words that were being sung. Messages of rejoicing, praise, peace, and comfort. Messages of God’s love and a Savior of the world.

There was one line that we sang that especially stood out to me. Surprisingly, these words were not from Handel’s masterpiece, but from a rather obscure carol that I had never heard before, titled “Babe of Bethlehem.” The first verse begins with these words:

“Ye nations all, on you I call, come hear this declaration,

And don’t refuse this glorious news of Jesus and salvation.”

The second line of this carol is what has stayed with me and continues to repeat in my mind frequently:

“And don’t refuse this glorious news of Jesus and salvation.”

I would like to think that as a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ, I would never “refuse this glorious news of Jesus and salvation.” But I recognize that I do often forget or lose sight of just how glorious the news is and what it really means for me and for the rest of the world. When I sink into hopelessness; when I am too hard on myself or others; when I don’t believe that people can change; when I become disheartened or despondent; when I allow fear to overpower me — in these times, I am losing sight of the glorious news. Perhaps, in a sense, I am even refusing it.

Last week I was feeling overwhelmed by a multitude of issues, ranging from intensely personal to global in scale. I felt frustrated about circumstances that were beyond my control. I felt worried about people that I care about and helpless to do anything for them. I felt discouraged by my own shortcomings and limitations. Watching the news filled me with anxiety and sorrow about things happening all over the world. I reached a breaking point and found myself on my knees, crying to the Lord.

When I finished praying, the thought that immediately came into my mind was, once again, the line from that carol: “Don’t refuse the glorious news of Jesus and salvation.” I started asking myself how “this glorious news” was relevant to the concerns that were weighing so heavily on me in that moment. I needed to go beyond the broad “Sunday school answers” and get specific. I began writing down some of the things that felt so burdensome. Then I looked at those concerns and carefully considered how the news of Jesus Christ truly was glorious in relation to each of them individually. This proved to be a rewarding exercise that caused me to examine my beliefs and actively choose to exercise faith over fear. I was reminded that the Atonement of Jesus Christ is “infinite and eternal” (see Alma 34: 10,14), and that I must remain ever-focused on Him.

This doesn’t mean that the feelings of frustration, discouragement, and fear have completely disappeared. Nor does it mean that I should beat myself up when I struggle with such feelings or when I fail to have a perfectly optimistic outlook. After all, part of the glorious news is that in my human state of imperfection and weakness, grace and mercy abound — and redemption is always available.

The phrase “glad tidings” is used several times throughout scripture when speaking of the coming of Jesus Christ. We often think of these glad tidings in reference to the angel’s announcement to the shepherds of a baby being born in Bethlehem (see Luke 2:10-12). But the glad tidings were not meant only for the shepherds and the prophets, or only for that moment in history, or only to be recalled at Christmastime. The glorious news of Jesus Christ should not only be remembered and declared during the joyful lights of December, but also — especially — in the gloom of January. That is what I will keep reminding myself of, day after day, whatever the month may be.