Just in case you missed it, the Interpreter Foundation’s 2018 public Christmas message, “Christmas in Transition: From Figgy Pudding to the Bread of Life,” was written for us by Elder Spencer J. Condie, an emeritus member of the Seventy. It appeared on Friday:
“While Christmas traditions around the world have evolved, some losing their focus on the Christ child, there is still need for us to center our thoughts and hearts on his message of forgiveness and redeeming love.”
The Interpreter Foundation’s special 2017 Christmas message was written for us by the popular Latter-day Saint violinist Jenny Oaks Baker, and it was entitled “Christmastime: When Our Souls Can Sing”:
“Christmas is upon us, and it is a special, magical time. I have seen the love of God touch countless lives through the glorious music of the season.”
Strikingly, Sharon Eubank, who wrote our 2016 Interpreter Christmas essay and who serves as both First Counselor in the General Relief Society Presidency of the Church of Jesus Chrst of Latter-day Saints and as director of LDS Charities, also used the theme of music in her piece, “The Song I Cannot Sing”:
“The story of her birth is a raucous family tale that begins with her arrival into the world on December 19. Her parents named her Joy.”
Prior to that, Clayton M. Christensen wrote our special 2015 Christmas article under the title ““He Did It”: A Christmas Message”:
“I think of this dream over and over again, every time Christmas happens. I’m grateful that everybody I meet actually accepted Christ once when we were at that meeting in heaven.”
And, while I’m at it, let me call attention once more to our first Interpreter Christmas essay — “Christmas Is About a Baby” — written for us in 2014 by Orson Scott Card.
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My wife and I have really gotten a kick out of all of the Christmas decorations that we’ve seen since arriving in Egypt on Sunday night. We haven’t been here at Christmas time in many, many years — and, back then, we weren’t spending much time during the holidays in the airport or at hotels — but I don’t recall ever seeing many Christmas decorations in Egypt back when we lived here. So we we’ve been surprised to see large, beautifully lit Christmas trees, poinsettias, gingerbread houses, and the like at the Cairo International Airport and in the two hotels in which we’ve stayed so far, and to hear Christmas music all over the place. None of it religious or remotely Christian, mind you. But there have been plenty of statuettes and images of Santa Claus and even Santa suits for sale. And several people have wished us “Merry Christmas!”
Posted from Alexandria, Egypt
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