Things were probably not  nearly so ideal as they are portrayed: Mary may not have had clean clothes, much less have her hair combed, the stable might have needed mucking out, Jesus may have cried half the night through, the swaddling clothes may not have been particularly clean or matched colors, and Mary must have been exhausted and shocked from the agony of her first delivery.  These are the things that miracles are made of.  Don't wait until everything is perfect: watch the Lord work with everything that is imperfect, unjust, or just plain miserable and see the magnificence that He brings out of it.

At Home in the Slums

Often I have focused on how Christ was out of place in the manger: that He deserved to be welcomed as a King, rather than ignored as a peasant. But Christ was at home with the outcasts: He came to be with them. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised”(Luke 4: 18). Had there been a “Triumphal Entry”, Christ would not have been accomplishing His purpose. He was not here to be celebrated, He was here to serve.

Isa. 55: 9

As the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways,

and my thoughts than your thoughts. 

Heavenly Father wants you to close that gap: to think higher thoughts, to act in higher ways. To Him, a person is never higher than when they stoop to pick up one another: convicts, the homeless, immigrants, the sick (Matt. 25: 35-36). Condescension is a characteristic of godliness (1 Ne. 11: 26-29). Want to lift the dregs of society. Try. Make them a part of your life. Bring forth from the abundance of your heart that which is good (Luke 6: 45).

And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. (1 Kgs. 19: 12)

Sometimes I think that if I have the Spirit with me then I’ll be like a fire or an earthquake: something extraordinary for all the world to see. It doesn’t sound very glamorous to be a still small voice. Where is the excitement there?

The Lord has given me a body to act for, as well as speak for God. But even so, most of God’s work is not “newsworthy”. People change, lives are healed, hearts are mended. Help me be a part of that change, and help me be satisfied with the lack of limelight.

Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.(Gen. 2: 24)

May I leave my parents for “the gospel’s [sake]” and “receive … in the world to come eternal life.”(Mark 10: 29-30) May my departure honor them in every way (Ex. 20: 12), that we may both be blessed.

May I cleave to my wife as the Lord has cleaved to me (Jacob 6: 5) and as I wnat to cleave to Him: to love and obey (Deut. 30: 20), to walk after, to serve “with all [my] soul”(Josh. 22: 5), and to “come [to] with full purpose of heart”(Jacob 6: 5).

May our hearts be “comforted, being knit together in love”(Col. 2: 2), that the Lord may call our home “Zion”(Moses 7: 18).

“Were it possible, I would make all things known unto you.” (Morm. 8: 12)

The Lord has asked me to share with you my experiences. I am constrained by my mortality to write to you. I would like to communicate with you more effectively: a personal interview with each of you, or to stand at your side while we seek the visitation of Heavenly messengers, as my father stood by my side, and we received their ministration together. That way, you would know and taste, as I have known and tasted “of the goodness of Jesus.”(Morm. 1: 15)

“In nothing did they work miracles save it were in the name of Jesus.”(4 Ne. 1: 5)

I want to make sure that in nothing do I observe miracles, i.e. that I credit miracles to the power of Jesus. There is no question of the miraculous nature of the birth and growth of a child. May my routine observation of such miracles lead to routine remembrance of God.