Christmas & the hope it brings me as a same-sex-attracted Latter-day Saint.

I’m sure I’m not the first same-sex-attracted Latter-day Saint to express that for a while I felt extremely out of place and distant during my family’s Christian celebrations, as I was coming to grips with my sexuality in my adolescence. I doubted my place in God’s plan, and even if this Christ-child was indeed sent for me. But, Jesus did come for me, and he came for you too.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” And I find hope most especially through John’s next statement, that “God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” What a glorious message! The Father intends to save the world—all of us—if we merely follow his Son.

Christmas to me, is a joyful reminder that God the Father has not forsaken us, his children. He kept his promise and provided us with a Saviour. And so, the God of heaven and earth, our Creator, took upon himself a corrupt tabernacle of clay, and made himself subject to all manner of physical, mental, and spiritual temptations and inflictions, that he truly could be “Immanuel”—God with us. He truly is Yeshua (Jesus); the Lord is our salvation.

I have hope in knowing—even when I don’t understand everything about my experience with same-sex attraction—that as I “share in [Jesus’] sufferings” (Romans 8:16-17), as he suffered his will to be swallowed up in the will of the Father, that I can eventually share in God’s glory. I know that all of us, no matter our mortal challenges, can have the joy of surrender that our Saviour exemplified, and by consequence the grace we need to overcome all mortal trials. In Christ is salvation, peace, and fulfilment.