Merry Christmas! Thanks to all whose messages and music and service have proclaimed good tidings of great joy at this Christmas season. Hundreds of millions celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ during this Christmas season.

The whole world should do so. His is the greatest life ever lived.

Even in worldly terms, the mortal life of Jesus of Nazareth has had a greater impact on this world and its history than any life ever lived.

He has been the principal subject of prophets and poets for thousands of years. The greatest art and music of the Western world has been devoted to celebrating the birth and life and mission of Jesus Christ.

Philosophers and theologians have spent their lives studying His teachings.

Those teachings have inspired countless works of charity,

manifestations of the pure love of Christ.

No one has had more monuments to His life and teachings than the Lord, Jesus Christ. This, of course, includes the great cathedrals that dot the landscape in Europe and the Americas, many of them requiring more than a century to construct.

More recently, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has 171 dedicated and operating temples

and has 129 more in restoration, original construction, design,

or just announced by President Nelson at our recent October general conference.

These houses of the Lord are on every continent and in 74 nations of the world. There we dedicate our lives to following Jesus Christ.

Millions have given their lives, and more importantly, millions have patterned their lives after the Lord God of Israel, Jehovah, Jesus Christ, our Savior.

President Gordon B. Hinckley did not overstate the point when he proclaimed, “His matchless example [was] the greatest power for goodness and peace in all the world.”

We can see an important purpose and symbol in the divine announcement of the birth of God’s Only Begotten Son.

We learn from the New Testament accounts that the announcements of the birth of the Christ child in the Eastern Hemisphere were made to three different groups,

each with very different characteristics.

Those who received the heavenly announcement of the birth were the very humble, the very holy, and the very wise.

The first announcement was to the shepherds in the hills by Bethlehem.

An angel and a heavenly choir proclaimed,

“Good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people … a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.”

The shepherds were probably chosen to receive these good tidings

because they were meek and humble.

Thus, they were uniquely receptive to the message of heaven,

which they verified by visiting the newborn.

Then, the scripture reports, they “made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.”

Their work as shepherds and the lambs they tended both anticipated examples of the Savior represented in His teaching.

Also, when Jesus came to John the Baptist at the beginning of His ministry, that prophet declared,

“Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”

The second announcement of the birth of the Messiah was in the temple in Jerusalem to two holy workers whose godly lives qualified them to receive the witness of the Holy Ghost.

When Mary and Joseph brought the baby Jesus to the temple for the sacrifice prescribed for the firstborn,

Simeon and Anna both witnessed that He was the Messiah.

The scripture records that Simeon took the child in his arms and blessed God

for allowing him to see “thy salvation,”

a “light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people, Israel.”

And Anna, a prophetess, “coming in that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem.”

A third group learned of this remarkable birth.

The Bible, as slightly improved by Joseph Smith, reports that,

“There came wise men from the east to Jerusalem saying, Where is the child that is born the Messiah of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.”

From their stated inquiry. we cannot doubt that they were led by the Lord for His sacred purposes.

The Bible teaches that “the things of God knoweth no man, except He has the Spirit of God.”

These wise men were of another land and culture.

So, a witness to them was a reminder that the Messiah was born for all people. In addition, there may have been another purpose.

The value of the gold and other gifts the wise men presented may have helped Mary and Joseph to make their hasty journey to Egypt and to remain there to save the Christ child when His life was threatened by the wicked order of King Herod.

Isn't it interesting that the miraculous event of the birth of Christ and something of the significance of that event was made known only to the very humble,

the very holy, and the very wise?

As Elder James E. Talmage taught in “Jesus the Christ,”

“Indeed, God raised up witnesses for himself to meet all classes and conditions of men—the testimony of angels for the poor and the lowly;

the testimony of wise men for the haughty king and proud priests of Judea.”

Remembering Simeon and Anna can inspire us to be like them

and add our witness of the sacred birth and its purpose at this Christmas season.

For us there is nothing new in the celebration of the birth of Christ.

The message is timeless and familiar. It was taught to Adam.

It was preached to the children of Israel.

It was revealed to the descendants of Father Lehi.

Again and again, prophets declared the central truths of the teachings and Atonement of Jesus Christ.

Again and again, they declared His mission and taught His command that the children of God love and serve God and one another.

Repeated through the ages, these declarations are the most important message in all eternity.

For those who follow Christ, these declarations are not to be revised.

They are to be renewed in each of our lives.

Christmas awakens in us a desire to extend ourselves beyond our normal ties of love and friendship. The heavenly proclamation “on earth peace, good will toward men” was not limited to those for whom we already have feelings of love and affection.

It directed goodwill to casual friends, to strangers, even to enemies.

Christmas is also a time for forgiving.

A time to heal old wounds and restore relationships that have gone awry.

Christmas is a time to eliminate arrogance and provocation.

To subdue criticism. To practice patience.

And to de-emphasize differences among people.

We have the incentive to extend sincere fellowship to all persons, those who are and those who are not of our faith.

Observing the command God had the prophet Moses give to the children of Israel, “If a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him.

But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself.”

Christmas is a time to remember that we are all children of a Father in Heaven

who gave His Only Begotten Son that all would be redeemed from death

and who has offered the blessing of salvation and exaltation to all mankind

on the same conditions. As followers of Christ, we ought to be the friendliest and most considerate of all people anywhere.

We should teach our children to be kind and considerate of everyone.

We should, of course, avoid the kinds of associations and activities that compromise our conduct or dilute our faith in worship.

But that should not keep us from cooperative efforts with people of every persuasion, believers and nonbelievers.

A few decades ago, President Monson spoke these words,

“The shepherds of old sought Jesus the child.

But we seek Jesus the Christ, our Older Brother, our Mediator with the Father,

our Redeemer, the Author of our salvation;

he who was in the beginning with the Father;

he who took upon himself the sins of the world and so willingly died that we might forever live. This is the Jesus whom we seek.”

Latter-day Saints are uniquely qualified to celebrate the saving message of Jesus Christ

throughout the year: We have the gift of the Holy Ghost,

whose mission is to testify of the Father and the Son.

We are children of a Father in Heaven who declared,

“This is my work and my glory—

to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.”

And the prophets of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who is the Lord God of Israel,

have declared His gospel: “He came into the world, even Jesus,

to be crucified for the world, and to bear the sins of the world, and to sanctify the world, and to cleanse it from all unrighteousness;

that through him all might be saved

whom the Father had put into his power and made by him;

who glorifies the Father and saves all the works of his hands.”

Therefore, in His restored Church,

we declare “that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.” I so testify in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, amen.