Dear Elders and Sisters,
As a full-time missionary in Russia during this special season of Christmas, you are in the perfect setting and circumstances to gain a more profound, even life-changing, understanding of Christ's love and atoning sacrifice. As you comprehend more fully the Savior's perfect love for you, you will feel greater love for Him and for all of Heavenly Father's children, your desire to serve Him with all your heart will increase, your disposition to yield to the natural man will decrease, and your life will become more joyful and fulfilling. You will become missionaries who experience many miracles gathering the House of Israel, as did Alma and the Sons of Mosiah.
I encourage you this Christmas season and each Christmas season hereafter to study Nephi's account, recorded in 1 Nephi 17, of seeing and understanding the vision his father Lehi had received. This chapter of First Nephi will help you gain a deeper understanding of our Savior's birth, mortal life and, most importantly, His profound love for you.
You will recall that when Nephi prayed to receive the vision his father Lehi had received, the Spirit of the Lord appeared to him and showed him the vision of a tree the beauty of which exceeded all beauty "and the whiteness thereof did exceed the whiteness of the driven snow." When Nephi asked "to know the interpretation thereof," the Spirit of the Lord commanded him to look, and Nephi looked and beheld the city of Jerusalem and other cities, and he "beheld the city of Nazareth; and in the city of Nazareth [he] beheld a virgin, and she was exceedingly fair and white." Nephi then "saw the heavens open; and an angel came down and stood before [him]; and he said unto [him]: Nephi, what beholdest thou?" to which Nephi responded: "A virgin, most beautiful and fair above all other virgins."
The angel then asked Nephi one of the most important questions ever posed to man: "Knowest thou the condescension of God?" [The word "condescension" means "a voluntary descent from one's rank or dignity in relations with an inferior."] In other words, the angel asked Nephi if he understood or could comprehend that God, the great Jehovah, the creator of heaven and earth, would voluntarily descend from His throne on high to be born and live among fallen men and women on this earth in order to save them from their lost and fallen state. Nephi responded: "I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things."
The angel then opened Nephi's understanding. Nephi recorded: "And he said unto me: Behold, the virgin whom thou seest is the mother of the Son of God, after the manner of the flesh…. [and] I beheld that she was carried away in the Spirit; and after she had been carried away in the Spirit for the space of a time … I looked and beheld the virgin again, bearing a child in her arms." The angel then declared to Nephi: "Behold the Lamb of God, yea, even the Son of the Eternal Father!"
The angel's next question and Nephi's response teach us that it was solely because of Christ's infinite love for us that He, the great Jehovah of the Old Testament and the God of the Book of Mormon prophets, voluntarily descended (condescended) from His throne on high to take upon Himself the pains and tribulations of mortality and ultimately endure pain and suffering that only a God could endure in order to atone for our sins. The angel asked Nephi if he knew "the meaning of the tree which thy father saw?" to which Nephi responded, "Yea, it is the love of God, which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore, it is the most desirable above all things."
Christ's infinite love for us and voluntary condescension to redeem us from our fallen state was the central theme of Nephi's vision. Nephi recounted that he looked and "beheld the Son of God going forth among the children of men; and …saw many fall down at his feet and worship him." He saw and understood that the iron rod, representing the "word of God," or the doctrine of Christ, leads God's children "to the fountain of living waters, or to the tree of life; which waters are a representation of the love of God; and…also...the tree of life was a representation of the love of God." As you study Nephi's vision and the testimonies of other Book of Mormon prophets, you can know and understand that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the great Jehovah, voluntarily descended from His Heavenly throne as the majestic ruler of Heaven and earth, to be born in a stable and laid in a manger, entering mortality in the humblest of circumstances to become the savior of mankind – and you will know that He did so entirely because of his perfect love for you.
Nephi records that the angel said to him a second time: "Look and behold the condescension of God!" And Nephi saw that Christ was baptized and that the Holy Ghost came down out of heaven in the form of a dove. He saw that Christ "went forth ministering unto the people, in power and great glory; and the multitudes were gathered together to hear him; and…that they cast him out from among them." After witnessing Christ healing the sick and administering in love to those who surrounded Him, Nephi ultimately saw that Christ, "the Lamb of God…was taken by the people; yea, the Son of the everlasting God was judged of the world [and] was lifted up upon the cross and slain for the sins of the world."
(the foregoing quotes are excerpted from 1 Nephi 17)
Because of the things the angel revealed to Nephi and taught him in this vision, Nephi subsequently prophesied: "And behold hecometh, according to the words of the angel, in six hundred years from the time my father left Jerusalem. And the world, because of their iniquity, shall judge him to be a thing of naught; wherefore they scourge him, and he suffereth it; and they smite him, and he suffereth it. Yea, they spit upon him, and he suffereth it, because of his loving kindness and his long-suffering towards the children of men." (1 Ne. 19:9) The prophet Mormon received this same powerful understanding of Christ's infinite love for us in his face-to-face conversation with the Savior: "I remember that thou hast said that thou hast loved the world, even unto the laying down of thy life for the world, that thou mightest take it again to prepare a place for the children of men. And now I know that this love which thou hast had for the children of men is charity." (Ether 12:33-34)
Elder Melvin J. Ballard, an early apostle, recounted the profound love he felt from the Savior when he met with him in a dream. He recorded that as he approached the Savior, "he arose and stepped towards me with extended arms, and he smiled as he softly spoke my name. If I shall live to be a million years old, I shall never forget that smile. He took me into his arms and kissed me, pressed me to his bosom, and blessed me, until the marrow of my bones seemed to melt! When he had finished, I knelt at his feet, and, as I bathed them with my tears and kisses, I saw the prints of the nails in the feet of the Redeemer of the world. The feeling that I had in the presence of him who hath all things in his hands, to have his love, his affection, and his blessing was such that if I ever can receive that of which I had but a foretaste, I would give all that I am, all that I ever hope to be to feel what I then felt."
Elder Neal A. Maxwell taught that the Savior personally acts as the gatekeeper of the celestial kingdom so that he can personally welcome and embrace those who have returned home: "That's why he's there! He waits for you 'with open arms.' That imagery is too powerful to brush aside. . . . It is imagery that should work itself into the very center core of one's mind—a rendezvous impending, a moment in time and space, the likes of which there is none other. And that rendezvous is a reality. I certify that to you. He does wait for us with open arms, because his love of us is perfect."
Elders and Sisters, it is my great desire and sincere prayer that each of you will experience the intimate love of our Savior, the Great Jehovah, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, to whom Enoch declared: "And were it possible that man could number the particles of the earth, yea, millions of earths like this, it would not be a beginning to the number of thy creations" (Moses 7:30). I testify that He, the God of all creation, left His throne of glory and descended below all things because of His infinite love for you and each of His Father's children. You will experience His infinite love and mercy when you meekly submit your will to Him, sincerely and completely repent of your sins and strive to serve Him in the sacred calling He extended to you through His living prophet. As you do so, your faith in Him and in His atonement will increase, the Holy Ghost will instill in you great hope in His promise of eternal life, you will be blessed with the gift of charity, you will experience inexpressible joy, and you will have confidence to call down the powers of Heaven to assist Him in redeeming the souls of those whom He has called you to serve.
I pray that you will be encircled "with the matchless bounty of his love." (Alma 26:15)
Sister Christensen and I love you dearly,
President Christensen
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