The second verse of the Christmas carol “Infant Holy, Infant Lowly” ends with the words “Christ the babe was born for you.”
Sister Tamara W. Runia, first counselor in the Young Women general presidency, testified of the truth of those words and added that Christ was born to lift “each one of us personally.”
In her remarks during the First Presidency’s Christmas Devotional on Sunday, Dec. 8, Sister Runia told a story from the late Elder John R. Lasater, a General Authority Seventy. While Elder Lasater was in Africa as part of an official government delegation, one of the government vehicles was involved in an accident with a small lamb.
Elder Lasater’s driver explained that under the king’s law, the shepherd was entitled to 100 times the value of the little lamb, but the lamb would be killed and the meat divided among the people.
The driver told Elder Lasater the old shepherd would not take the money. “They never do,” he told him. “It’s because of the love he has for each of his sheep.”
As Elder Lasater watched, the old shepherd reached down, lifted the injured lamb in his arms and placed him in the folds of his robe. When Elder Lasater asked his driver the meaning of the word the shepherd kept repeating, he was told it was the lamb’s name and the shepherd knew each one by name.
“For he is their shepherd, and the good shepherds know each one of their sheep by name,” the driver told him.
“If we remember anything or feel anything this Christmas season, it should be that we are His,” Sister Runia said. “And if He’s anyone’s, He is most certainly yours. Christ the babe was born for you.”
In Isaiah 53:6, Isaiah reminds that “all we like sheep have gone astray.” Each person has maybe been in a place where they have felt like a wandering lamb or even a lost sheep, Sister Runia said.
“Tonight, I submit that we are all injured lambs in need of the Good Shepherd, who will cradle us in the arms of His love,” she said. “Because to be mortal means we have things about us that feel broken, that need fixing.”
Sister Runia said she feels the need for a Redeemer more keenly on Sundays during the sacrament.
“In those most sacred minutes of your whole week, if you’re feeling crushed, imagine Him calling you by name and go to Him,” she said. “See your Savior in your mind’s eye, with His arms open and bright countenance extended to you, saying: ‘I knew you would feel like this. That’s why I came to earth and suffered what I did.’”
The Savior’s help, His grace, is available right now to each person, Sister Runia said. And one doesn’t have to make it to the end of the road, where things are perfectly together. One goes to church, to the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper to be healed, but also to feel clean, according to Sister Runia.
“My friends, do we truly remember and receive this most stunning doctrine?” she asked. “If we’ve been doing the work to keep our covenants with God — continually returning, reporting and repenting — we can be cleansed each day, and through the ordinance of the sacrament, we can feel as clean as the day we were baptized.”
Speaking to those who may feel broken and aren’t sure they will experience the Lord’s healing, Sister Runia said that each Sunday during the sacrament, “He is lifting you off the dusty road and placing you in the folds of His robe and cradling you in His ample arms.”
Reflecting on the first Christmas night, when an angel shared good tidings of great joy with shepherds, Sister Runia said she imagines that angel saying: “Your friend, your best friend and Savior has just arrived. And if you knew how closely He has watched you, how much you looked to Him when you lived with Him before, if you understood what He is going to sacrifice for you and how much He will ever after be willing to do to help you return home, you would rush to greet Him at the manger.”
