For Unto Us A Child Is Born

As I ponder the season we are about to celebrate, my thoughts and heart go out to those in our armed forces who will not have the luxury of celebrating the Savior’s birth at home with their families, surrounded by the love and peace most of us will enjoy this Christmas.

I love Isaiah’s prophecy of Christ and his birth:

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Of course, this fallen world in 2005 enjoys less of Christ's Peace than ever. I'm reminded of another of Isaiah's prophecies, which I am convinced is one of the primary causes for the lack of Peace in this lost and fallen world:

. . . for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.

One need look no further than the "wisdom" the world's so called "wise men" and the understanding of the world's so called "prudent" to know why we are where we are. It's all I can do to muster a sigh. Yet, as the same Isaiah verse notes, He will proceed to do a Marvellous Work and a Wonder, which He has in fact done, by and through the Prophet Joseph Smith, in the Restoration of His ancient Gospel.

So, like the Christmas Hymn notes:

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep, God is not dead nor doth He sleep. The wrong shall fail the right prevail, with Peace on Earth, Good Will to men.

Though it seems practically impossible from our mortal perspective, at this juncture, that this will ever come to pass, there is something in the Spirit of the Christmas season that always brings the sense of hope, at least in my heart, that there will come a day with Peace on Earth, Good Will to men. May the Spirit of Christ fill us all during this extraordinary time of year.