Feliz Navidad

Merry Christmas! I hope you have a good one spent with the people and things that really matter.

I like the poet Wordsworth post-sellout. (Sorry to those of you who don't!) I like his "Ode on Intimations of Immortality." Even if you aren't familiar with his poetry, you might recognize a few quotes from it. In it, he says:

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:

The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star

Hath had elsewhere its setting,

And cometh from afar:

Not in entire forgetfulness,

And not in utter nakedness,

But trailing clouds of glory do we come

From God who is our home:

Heaven lies about us in our infancy!

I've always liked these lines. I love that Wordsworth envisioned a pre-mortal life, unlike many of the religions of the day, where birth is simply a forgetting of the old world. And whenever I see a baby I agree with Wordsworth--heaven lies about us in our infancy. But despite all previous love I've had for these lines, I especially like to think of them with regard to the birth of the Savior.

If anyone ever came into this world "trailing clouds of glory," it was Him. And even though he was born in the most humble of circumstances--true deity descending below all things--heaven lay about him. He may have been born into a manger, sharing his lodging with livestock and sleeping on a bed of hay, but He was the Son of God, the offspring of deity in that remarkably unfitting setting. He truly entered this world with his glory trailing behind him, manifest by the star in sky.

Every Christmas I reflect on the birth of the Savior, and still it hits me every time--the Son of God literally descended below all things to save us. He took on flesh, and not only that, he was a God born into a place more lowly than any of us. He, a God, had more humble beginnings in this world than even I did. He did not deserve to be received into the world by cattle and sheep and poor shepherds, but He was. I still don't know how he could love us so much to be willing to do all he has done and will do for us, but clearly he loves all of us, even when we don't deserve it. (And trust me, we don't deserve it!)

I hope you all have a great Christmas; I know I will. This is a season when we get to celebrate and reflect on how lucky we really are:)