Women at Christ's birth

Tonight we had our RS Christmas dinner and program. After a delicious meal we headed to the Relief Society room for the yearly Christmas program. The room was beautifully decorated and glowing with Christmas lights. The program chosen was Women at Christ's birth, By: Judith Hoopes Hamilton.

It just so happens that yours truly was asked to play Mary. I am still not sure how they came to the conclusion that I was perfect for this role but I am so glad that they did. Preparing for my little part really threw me into the Christmas Spirit and reinforced even more what this special time of year is all about. Most of all it gave me an even deeper appreciation for my role as a mother. It is truly the greatest role I will ever play. Still the thought of playing Mary made me so nervous. More so than I think I have been in years. I was shaky and my heart was pounding. I thought for sure that I would get up there and immediately start crying and not be able to speak. It didn't help that I spoke last and listened to my friends before me tear up and cry as they spoke. Also before me was the most beautiful piano and violin performance of "O Holy Night", that I have ever heard.

So it was finally my turn and dressed as Mary I walked up to the mic and began to speak. I did tear up and I did fight back tears but I made it through and by the end my nerves were gone and my heart was calm and warm. I love that I was able to share these precious words with my sisters who I love dearly. What a wonderful message it is.


Mary, the Mother of Jesus

Yes, I am Mary; and yes, Jesus is my son. Indeed, blessed am I among women.
My story is an old one, told and retold from before time began, and once
again, here, today, by these women whom I love so well. It is a story of
spirit, rather than history, and it's simple and inspiring truth must and
will be manifest by the Holy spirit rather by the words of men.
I am a woman, much as the women among you, gifted with diving opportunity of
forming a partnership with God in providing a mortal temple for the spirits
of his children. It is a sacred thing, motherhood, whether it concerns the
Christ or any one of the infinitely precious spirits sent to each of you.
Sacred, holy, and beautiful beyond description. For in the pure and
undefiled love of a mother for her child, mankind comes closer to
appreciating the love of God, than at any other time.

Like you, I hoped, dreamed and prayed for the benefit of the child of I
loved. I prepared meals straightened bends and picked childish toys. My
relationship with my child was, in so many ways, no more mystical than that
of you with yours will be. With Him I enjoyed an exulted, sorrowed and
wept, learned and grew. He taught me of life, and of love, of this world
and the next, partly because He was the Christ, mostly because He was a
child.

For to me, His mother, He was, especially in the beginning, often just a
child, reaching, becoming.
It was so true, what Luke said of me, that after the birth of my son, after
the shepherds had come, born witness to the divinity of my babe and then
returned to their flocks, I sat quietly in the soft light and kept all these
things and pondered them in my heart. I knew, and was the only mortal
alive who did know, how I had come to conceive and bear this son of the Most
High. I had been told who He was, and what He was, and what He would become.
And yet, as I look at Him, lying in the manger, He was a child, a tiny baby
needing food, and comfort and care. I did ponder, for many years long and
often, and sometimes painfully; and yet come to a full understanding when I
stood at the foot of His cross.

For on that evening in a lowly manger was born more than a child. There
was born a way of life, the personification of love, the hope of the world
from the beginning until the end of time. I, I, who conceived Him, who
carried Him, cared for Him, and watched Him live and die, give you my solemn
word that He was indeed blameless and pure, that He lived to teach, and died
to save each of us, that He was and is and always will be the Son of God.
I, Mary, know it to be true! Amen.