One Solitary Life

It's been a busy missionary transfer week this week. Along with the normal companionship changes every six weeks, we've said sad good-byes to those who've completed their missions and welcomed a shiny new group of elders and sisters fresh from the MTC. And the work moves forward.

Now, as we inch closer and closer to Christmas Day this year, our preparations are turning our hearts to the real reason we celebrate. Amidst all the hustle and bustle, the to-do lists, the holiday food, the music and performances, the parties and gatherings, and the gift buying/giving, gentle reminders emerge here and there that it was all originally designed to celebrate and give honor to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Many years ago, as a young teenager, I remember reading a simple tribute that, to me, said it all. I think I may have originally read it in the Reader's Digest. It's only a few paragraphs long, but it speaks volumes. Dr. James Allan Francis, a Baptist pastor in Los Angeles, wrote and presented it as part of his Sunday sermon sometime during 1926. It is as true today as it was then.

ONE SOLITARY LIFE

"Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then, for three years, He was an itinerant preacher.

"He never owned a home. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put His foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place He was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself....

"While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against Him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves. While He was dying, His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth - His coat. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.

"Nineteen [now twenty] long centuries have come and gone, and today He is a centerpiece of the human race and leader of the column of progress.

"I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built; all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that One Solitary Life."

He is the Lord of lords, the King of kings, and the Savior and Redeemer of all the world. He is Jesus Christ. It is through Him, His sacrifice and His atonement for our sins that we have the hope and promise that we can return to live with Him and with God again one day, in love and peace - forever.

--Pat--