President's Weekly Letter #18

 …VAN EEN VERNUFTIGE MAKELIJ…

(1 Nephi 18:1)

Belgium/Netherlands Mission

                  

A TOWEL – CHRISTMAS 2012

A towel, a small cloth.  It can wipe a dish, dry hands, or clean away crumbs.  It can clean up a spill, mess or accident.  It can mop up a floor or dust a table.  Perhaps it could clean a window, or shine a pair of shoes.   Maybe it could wipe a bike seat dry or keep a head dry and warm in the rain.  You see, a towel is very versatile.  

Perhaps it could dry a tear of a broken heart.  Perhaps it could warm a loaf of bread, a plate of cookies or a bowl of soup until safely delivered to someone needing a gentle touch of God’s love.  Just maybe it could clean a small corner of a home in need of a visit, or a little support, or the opportunity to feel the Spirit of our Father in Heaven.

It was a small cloth that wrapped and swaddled the Baby Jesus.  I often contemplate what I might have done on the spring night when the Angels heralded the birth of the Babe of Bethlehem.  Might I have gone to worship the infant ‘wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger’? (see Luke 2:12) Or might I have held back, lacking faith to believe the message given: ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.’ (Luke 2:14) therefore, missing out on one of the greatest events this world will know.  I believe you and I were there at that sacred event.  I believe we knew the Gift wrapped in that small piece of swaddling cloth.   I believe that because we are here serving the ‘Babe of Bethlehem’ in these quaint countries, so I believe we were present that long ago night.

The Savior himself used a small cloth to teach a powerful lesson about love and service.  John 13: 4-5, 12-17:  ‘He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself.  After that he poureth water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.  So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you?  Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am.  If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet.  For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.  If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.’

Perhaps this towel can perform miracles. We believe it can. We all pray for miracles to happen every day and they do.  This Christmas Season, follow the example given by the Savior, Jesus Christ.  Do as He has done, find a way to ‘wash one another’s feet’.  Find a way to serve, to love, to lift, to sustain, to encourage those around you every day.  Use this small cloth to perform miracles. 

We love you from the depth of our heart.  We cherish you and honor you for who you are and what you are accomplishing in your life.  If we then, can love you so sincerely, how much more your Heavenly Father and Savior love you.  Merry Christmas. 

President and Sister Robinson