I am a singer by nature. I sing daily, sometimes so much that my family asks me to hush. Music is simply my heart’s language. So, as I thought of what to post this week, I decided I wanted to share a Christmas song that is particularly meaningful to me. It’s called “Shine for Me Again, Star of Bethlehem”.
It tells a story of one of the shepherd boys who might have visited Jesus when he was born. It describes the boy following the star and seeing Jesus and finding both his King and his Friend. To me this symbolizes a person hearing about Jesus, developing faith, walking the path to God, and then finding Him through a spiritual witness.
My path involved lots of prayer, scripture reading, seminary, and Church attendance as a child and youth. As an adult, my path involved a lot of questions, prayer, study of world religions and philosophies, fasting, and finally, a witness of Jesus Christ’s Atonement, a witness that the Church leaders are true servants of God, and also a witness of God’s love for His daughters. Those three witnesses came after months and months of study, prayer, fasting, and temple attendance. My road was not easy, but the witnesses I received that night in January of 2009 have anchored my testimony, faith, and my adult life.
In the song, after the boy meets Jesus and finds his King and Friend, the song says,
“But life goes on. Years beyond one brief night of my youth. Time clouds my vision of truth. And though I stumble and fall, I can hear someone call, ‘Do not despair. Your star is still there.’ And the song ends with “[His] love never ends. Shine for me again, star of Bethlehem.”
This part symbolizes times when people of faith and witness feel more distant than they’d like, when testimonies feel cloudy, and when people experience disturbing questions that go soul-deep. “Faith crises” are very real and actually somewhat typical.
In short, the song “Shine for Me Again, Star of Bethlehem” translates in my experience to “I want to feel close to the Savior again. I want to remember how I felt and feel it again. I want to walk the path that takes me to Him again.”
So, here’s the song! Next week, I’ll share more about “faith crises”, but for now …
Merry Christmas and Happy Home Evenings!
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