The True Meaning of Christmas

Every once in a while we have an experience that touches our soul. Last night was such an experience. Susan organized a visit to the temple grounds for the children of the Mabuhay House (our Ronald McDonald house). The temple area is beautifully decorated here with colored lights on the palm trees and a manger scene near the temple. It is closed on Monday nights but we arranged for it to be opened for our children. We met about 5 PM and the children had been anxiously awaiting our arrival for the past 2 hours. We brought the children a treat of yogurt and tangerines and sang Christmas songs while we waited for the vans to arrive. I pulled one little girl over to the food. Her arms were deformed and so thin I thought they might break. I pealed a tangerine for her but had to feed it to her as her arms wouldn't bend enough for her to put the food into her mouth by herself. Most of the kids currently are there for repair of clubbed feet and are on crutches or in wheelchairs, but others have cleft lip & palate deformities, cataracts or crossed eyes or burn contractures. They each have a parent or guardian with them. After singing "Jolly Ole St. Nicholas" I asked them "when does Santa Claus visit in the Philippines?" All I got was a blank stare. I then realized that these people were too poor to have Santa visit. It is all they can do to feed their families. The time finally came to get in the vans and we drove through Manila traffic for 15 minutes to arrive at the temple. One little deaf boy, who has difficulty interacting with the kids because he can't talk, started jumping up and down with delight as he saw the colored lights and ran up to Susan, threw his arms around her and gave her a big hug. This was something he could experience like the other kids. We walked as a group, looking at the beauty of the grounds, stopped for a few group pictures and then over to the apartments of the temple workers right there on the temple grounds. We sang Christmas carols to them in English and Tagalog and they came out and gave the children candy. After, we went to the Manger scene and I told them a condensed version of the Christmas story as related by Luke. During the entire evening no one cried, there was no fighting among the children only a peaceful feeling of love and happiness that is difficult to put into words. When it came time to leave, no one wanted to get in the vans, but babies were starting to fall asleep and the time had come. We drove back to the Mabuhay House and let them out knowing they had experienced something special, the true spirit of Christmas in their hearts as we had. Early this morning I awoke with tears in my eyes as I thought about these children. We have come here to help mend their broken and deformed bodies but Christ is there to comfort their souls and through His atoning sacrifice they will eventually all be healed, completely restored to their perfect frame. They will undergo enormous difficulty in this life but can be resurrected without blemish through His perfect life and atonement. This makes me feel very inadequate but so grateful for the knowledge I have that He lives and loves us all.