Joy to the World

I've been thinking about this post all month, so I'm glad I'm finally getting a chance to put it into words. As far as Christmas hymns go, Joy to the World had become one of my favorites. I can’t sing it without hearing the full Tabernacle choir and orchestra in my head, I can’t sing it without feeling like I’m proclaiming the greatest truths of the gospel to the world, and I can’t sing it without tearing up as my heart is full with the joy I feel knowing that my Savior HAS come and the He will come again. In the first verse of Joy to the World, one phrase that always hits me is “let every heart prepare him room.” I’ve thought a lot about what that means. It’s significant to me because although there were no inns with room for the Savior, we all have the opportunity to make room for Him in our hearts, always, but especially at the Christmas season. Last year my big epiphany was how the holiday season works together to testify of Christ- I become grateful and my heart is softened at Thanksgiving, my heart turns to my Savior at Christmas and I long to become more like Him which prepares me to make goals at the New Year to repent and improve. This year I realized that I didn’t want to wait until the New Year to improve (although I’m sure I’ll take stock then and set goals once again), but I wanted to give my own gift to the Savior throughout the Christmas season. I wanted to prepare my heart to have room for Him. As I have made room in my heart for Christ, I have become aware of changes I need to make so that He can have room to dwell there and be comfortable in doing so. It's been a humbling process, but one that has brought me great joy.
I also loved the following excerpt from this talk by President Eyring. It's changed my perspective greatly.
"Jesus gave his gift freely, willingly to us all. He said, “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. “No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself” (John 10:17–18). I bear testimony that as we accept that gift, given through infinite sacrifice, it brings joy to the giver. Jesus taught, “I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance” (Luke 15:7). If that warms you as it does me, you may well want to give a gift to the Savior. But he seems to have everything, doesn’t he? Well, not quite. He doesn’t have all of us with him again, forever—not yet. I hope we are touched enough by the feelings of his heart to sense how much he wants to know each of us is coming home to him. We can’t give that gift to him in one day or in one Christmas. But we could show him today that we are on the way. If we have already done that, there is still something left to give. All around us are people he loves, and he wants to help them—through us. One of the sure signs of a person who has accepted the gift of the Savior’s atonement is a willingness to give. The process of cleansing our lives seems to make us more sensitive, more generous, more pleased to share what means so much to us. I suppose that’s why the Savior used an example of gift-giving in describing who would finally come home to him: “Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: “For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: “Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. … “Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me” (Matt. 25:34–36, 40). And that, I suppose, is the nicest effect of receiving great gifts: it makes us want to give and give well. I’ve been blessed all my life by such gifts. I acknowledge that. Many of those gifts were given long ago. We’re near the birthday of the Prophet Joseph Smith—December 23. He gave his great talent and his life that the gospel of Jesus Christ might be restored. My ancestors left home and familiar ways to embrace the restored gospel—as much, perhaps more, for me as for them. And so what shall we do to appreciate and to give a merry Christmas? “Freely ye have received, freely give” (Matt. 10:8). I pray that we will freely give. I pray that we will be touched by the feelings of others, that we will give without feelings of compulsion or expectation of gain, and that we will know that sacrifice is made sweet to us when we treasure the joy it brings to another heart.