We are grateful to Shawna Belt Edwards, a Mormon woman, who is helping us begin the Christmas season with a reminder of the importance of keeping Christ at the center of our lives. She shares a beautiful song she composed entitled “Do You Have Room?”

Mormon woman Shawna and her LDS family

Shawna writes this about her song:

It was only a few days before Christmas, and I was in the throes of the Christmas Crush — you know — that somewhat sickening feeling you have when you’ve spent way too much time at the mall, and you’re still not “ready”? And then I read an article written by President Thomas S. Monson, who said,

“[P]ersonally invited to undertake a search for the babe…did the shepherds concern themselves with….their possessions? Did they procrastinate their search for Jesus? The record affirms that…they came with haste.”

I felt a pang of conscience as I realized that I, too, had received a personal invitation to come unto Him, but had lately ignored it in favor of buying up worthless trinkets. I was the innkeeper, with no room for Him. I didn’t notice the star and I didn’t hear the angels sing.

I continued to read:

In these busy days there are many who have time for golf, time for shopping, time for work, time for play—but no time for Christ. Lovely homes dot the land and provide rooms for eating, rooms for sleeping, playrooms, sewing rooms, television rooms, but no room for Christ.

I sang it to my family on Christmas Eve, then filed it away in my music drawer and forgot about it. It might still be there, if it weren’t for my Dad, who regularly asked me, “Have you done anything with that song?”

After her father’s death, she did do something with that song. She made a video and posted it on YouTube and shared it with a half dozen other people.

I was reluctant to send it to anyone else, but my kids weren’t. Within a few weeks, I was getting  emails from people all over the world, and from many different faiths and walks of life. They shared with me their stories of struggle and tragedy; of courage, hope, and triumph. I answered every email–it was the season of a thousand new friends.