A Great Light

As I ponder the importance of the celebration of Easter, I’m taken back to what I deem as the most impactful and sacred spiritual experience I’ve ever had. I don’t really know why I was blessed with the following experience, I only share it here in the hope that it may be of some comfort and help to someone reading this.  Interestingly enough, it was an experience that happened during Christmastime, but the tie to Easter will become quickly apparent.

For a time, I was asked to volunteer in a role with my Church called a Bishop, where one of my duties was, pretty much on a weekly basis, to provide spiritual counseling, assistance, and guidance to members of our Ward (congregation) in Colfax.  One particular evening, as I was driving home from a series of such meetings, I was listening to Christmas music playing on my car stereo.  The song being played was vocal-group Pentatonix’ version of “Mary, Did You Know?”, a popular piece written by Mark Lowry. The lyrics, addressed to the mother of our Savior, ask several poignant questions about the forthcoming mission of the Christ child. 

One stanza had the following:

Mary, did you know that your baby boy will give sight to a blind man?
Mary, did you know that your baby boy will calm the storm with his hand?
Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod?
When you kiss your little baby, you kiss the face of God.

As I listened, in my mind’s eye, and being taken away by the Holy Spirit, I pictured the humble setting of our Savior’s birth. I saw, as it were, an essence of “light”, pure and powerful, descending from the heavens to that manger scene. Frankly, the purity and power of that light was overwhelming to me.  That light was symbolic to me of the pre-mortal Christ’s spirit coming to earth to take upon Himself a mortal body. As I further pondered, I saw that very special Infant child in Mary’s loving arms. As I noted above, the vision of that Light was overpowering. It gave me a deeper understanding of Isaiah’s prophesy of the coming Messiah, “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light” (Isaiah 9:2).  It truly testified to me that Jesus was indeed the very promised Christ, our loving Redeemer, our blessed Savior. 

The song continued:

Mary, did you know that your baby boy is Lord of all creation?
Mary, did you know that your baby boy would one day rule the nations?
Did you know that your baby boy is Heaven's perfect Lamb?
That sleeping child you're holding is the great I am.

At that moment, I knew in the deepest of ways that that Infant child was truly the Son of God, Jehovah, the Great “I Am”, the great lawgiver of the Old Testament and the loving, healing Messiah of the New. I felt to the depth of my soul that that little baby would one day suffer for us all, starting first in a private garden on the Mount of Olives called Gethsemane, then in a very public way on a cross on Calvary, where His suffering culminated in His voluntarily “giving up the ghost”. That sacred suffering and eventual death of the great Immanuel was an offering. It was the paying the horrible price of Him taking upon Himself our sins and weaknesses. As Isaiah again prophesied:

“Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.“  (Isaiah 53:4-5)

Overcome by the depth of this realization and revelation, I knew that the questions asked of Mary were being asked of me. Did I know that Jesus was chosen from the foundations of the earth to be “Heaven’s perfect Lamb”?  Did I know in my heart that the stories of His miracles and teachings of Jesus were true? Did I really know that on the third day He did in fact break the bands of death and rose again as our resurrected Lord, the Living Christ?

In a very special way, this Christmas song had an Easter message. As I saw the infant child in Mary’s arms, I knew in the most profound manner that, as the prophet Alma in the Book of Mormon testified, Jesus Christ would “take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he [would] take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.” (Alma 7:12)  I saw that great Light shining in the darkness of that manger, and perhaps more poignantly, in this dark and dreary world. It gave me more meaning to His words “I am the Light of the World” (John 8:12).

I invite you, this Easter season, to ask yourself, like the song asked of Mary, do you know?