The Similarities Between Christmas and New Years'

This blog post is for yesterday. Even after posting this one, I'll owe you another for today.

I was thinking yesterday of the similarities between the first Christmas and New Year's Eve. Obviously, New Year's Eve marks the end of one year and the beginning of another. If nothing else, that means everyone has to update their calendars. The same thing happened in response to Jesus' birth. I'm not sure when the decision was made or by whom, but some time after Jesus was born, we started using the year of His birth to count what year it is. The year is 2016 because 2,016 years have passed since Jesus Christ was born. The change from B.C. to A.D.is a bigger change than that from one year to another, but they're roughly of the same kind.

The birth of Christ and the start of a new year are events that were and are looked forward to with excitement and anticipation. I joined millions of others in counting down the seconds to the new year last night. While only a few people were there for the birth of Jesus Christ, there were many who looked forward to it. The prophesies of Jesus' birth date back to the days of Adam and were spoken and read by prophets and kings in every age of the earth since then. The birth of Christ was a quiet event, but a great number of people were excited about it.

The most important way in which Christmas and New Years' is similar is in how they both represent a chance to start over. On New Years', people make resolutions to improve their lives. The birth and atonement of Jesus Christ make that possible. Because of Jesus Christ, we can repent of our sins, overcome our faults, and begin again whenever we make mistakes. Christmas and New Years' mean that we can change, not just our calendars, but our lives. We can break old habits and form new ones. In many ways, we can become new ourselves.

I'm looking forward to continuing to grow and change in 2016. I know I have a lot of changes to make in my life before I can reach my ultimate goals, and that most of those changes can come only after months and years of trying to change. A person can't change overnight, even if that night is December 31st, but because of the child whose birth is celebrated on December 25th, anything can change.